Approximately 300 students from a government primary school embarked on a 50-kilometer march to stage a protest outside the District Education Office in Dir Upper district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) on Thursday.
According to local residents who spoke to The Express Tribune, the Government Primary School for Girls in Sandary has been operating with just one teacher for the past year.
Frustrated by this situation, students and their parents marched for over 50 kilometers to reach Dir proper, where they held a protest outside the DEO Dir Upper office.
They blocked the GT Road outside the office for an hour, fervently demanding the appointment of additional teachers to ensure their education can continue.
“For the past year, we’ve repeatedly informed the DEO about the situation and requested the assignment of more teachers to the school, but our pleas fell on deaf ears,” they expressed. “This forced us to organize this protest and march to make our demands heard.”
“This grueling 50-kilometer journey from Sandary village in Guwaldi Darra to Dir proper was undertaken out of necessity, as there seemed to be no other viable option,” they emphasized.
“Over the last year, the school has been functioning with only one teacher, as two female teachers have been consistently absent from their duties. This single teacher cannot adequately attend to all classes, and all our complaints have gone unanswered,” they lamented.
Former MPA Sahibzada Tariq addressed the protesters and expressed his dismay that 300 students were left without teachers, seemingly unnoticed by the authorities.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 13th, 2023.
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