I was shocked when I saw a 13 years old boy serving chick plates at a road side shop in Dera Isamil Khan who was speaking fluently Waziristani dialect. It was Gulnaz Khan hailing from Makeen Area of South Waziristan. Gul told his story as he came here along with his family in early 2008 when military operation Rah e Najat started there. He told that he and his brother were studying there in a private school but at the present they both are working for their livelihood as there was none to support him.
“We have to pay rent for our twin rooms’ house, pay for the treatment of my ailing patients and also we have to buy food for our seven- member family” Gul said adding that he too wanted to get education like other students but could not.
Gulnaz and his brother is not the sole example of those tribal students who left education due to the growing militancy in the region. There are thousands of tribal students who left schools due to one reason or another.
Some students were displaced while others have to say good bye to education because their schools are either ruined or running without proper staff.
Ali Muhammad an official from South Waziristan Education Department said there were more than 36,000 students displaced from South Waziristan as a result of Operation Rah E Najat in 2008. He said almost all the schools numbering in hundreds were totally demolished in the operation and only those areas have schools now where army have rehabilitated the IDPs in the areas of Sara Rogha and Sarvekai.
According to the official statistics, 447 out of 638 schools in South Waziristan Agency were declared non-functional in the Mehsud area in the wake of military operation. Before army operation, militants had also occupied schools and turned the buildings into hideouts. This situation in North Waziristan is no different.
There may be other reasons behind it but militancy is the main reason in the increase of dropout ratio and the number of ghost schools. On 5th of October 2007, an unannounced military operation was started for the third time in NWA and a rough estimate revealed that more than 80,000 families had migrated to Bannu, Peshawar, Dera Isamil Khan and other parts of the country.
Owing to these operations, over one million persons became homeless and about 0.5 million children from the age group of 5 to 18 got out of their schools only in North and South Waziristan.
But operation is not the only factor of the highest dropout ratio of the tribal children from the educational institutions; there are other factors that have also contributed to the calamity. Rehmatullah is a senior educationist hailing from North Waziristan, says that after 9/11, the high-ups of education departments lost control over the institutions and the system of check and balance almost ceased to exist.
“Teachers are free of any fear for being accountable to anybody. All depends on their mood and if they want to go to school otherwise they stay at home or run their shops” he said adding that the schools once crowded with students are now practically turned into ghost houses.
An official in Fata secretariat who is working in the education department says that not only the government is spending billions of rupees over education but the drop-out ratio in Fata is going up and up. Though some people may raise fingers over the amount spent on education but not on the drop-out ratio especially due to displacement.
The Fata annual school census report 2011-12 reveals that dropout rate is 63 per cent among boys and 77 per cent among girls, while 54 per cent children quit schools before reaching grade 10. Officials said that these figures might be the highest dropout ratio in the country.
Nasir Khan Burki an official of a NGO working in Education in NWA and SWA is of the opinion that social taboos as one cause of the dropout increase in the tribal areas.
“Though poverty and social taboos associated with girls’ education are the major factors contributing to the high dropout rate, militancy and large-scale displacement of population has acted as a bomb shell,” said Nasir. He said that a large number of schools had been destroyed in the violence-ravaged area that had not been rehabilitated.
A social worker at Mirali said that although, at present there is no massive military offensive in the North Waziristan Agency but the news of Military operation in the area from time to time have caused a good number of people to migrate beforehand to safer places which in the long run have caused more than 20,000 children to be dropped out from their schools.
Yasir Assad is a student of second year in Government degree college Mirali, North Waziristan. He takes private tuition in Bannu along with his two brothers.
“Actually, we don’t find any teacher in our college and if we find someone for one or a half period, that is not enough to prepare us for the competition going on now a days in the field of medical and engineering” Yasir added that the principal had assured them many a times but unfortunately all proved wrong and we cannot afford to waste more time for just empty promises.
Last but not least is that after the operation, about 10014 families have returned to their homes in South Waziristan Agency and according to a local journalist army has focused over education and 55 new schools have been established in the area properly facilitated with teachers, furniture and books for the students.
Another 33 schools and a Cadet college have also been established in Tehsil Sara Rogha and Sarvekai. The teachers are also being checked by the army personnel and there is a ray of hope but still a lot of work is yet to be done in both the sister agencies as the education is the worst sufferer in the ongoing war on terror.
With the appointment of the new governor Engineer Shaukatullah, it is hoped that education will be given more attention in FATA especially in North and South Waziristan.

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