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Schools sought for refugee children

2017-08-11
KOHAT: A spokesman for six Afghan refugee camps housing over 79,000 refugees has called for doubling the number of existing primary and middle schools for saving future of their children.

Talking to this scribe here on Thursday, the spokesman, Malik Awal Khan, regretted that there was only one higher secondary school for boys located in the Ghamkol Refugee Camp No 3 for the six refugee camps for which students had to travel a long distance from other areas.

`There is one primary school each in Ghamkol camps No 2 and 3, Ghulam Banda, Shindhand, Cheechanna and Ublan, he said, adding that work on a middle school was stopped by the landowner after construction of eight rooms last year.

Mr Khan claimed that the land was a collective property, but a person claiming to be its lone owner approached the administrator Afghan refugees for stopping the work which was refused, but then he went into litigation.

The spokesman said that strength of every class was between 80 and 90 students who sit on the floor as there was no furniture. Four teachers were provided by the UNHCR and four by them.

Moreover, all the camps have one each primary girls school who have to stop education after primary level. `We have no resources and do not allow our girls to go to the city for education. The government should establish middle and higher secondary schools for girls too,` he said. Correspondent