Peshawar — Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s elementary and secondary education department has identified 4,049 government school buildings in the province as dilapidated and in need of immediate reconstruction and rehabilitation to protect students and teachers.
According to the department’s initial estimates, about Rs16.2 billion will be required to rebuild and repair these boys’ and girls’ schools. The check was run through district and tehsil formations after a private school building collapsed in Peshawar’s Dir Colony, killing 31 students and a woman teacher.
What the province-wide check found
Officials say the structures needing reconstruction or rehabilitation include 8,088 classrooms, 2,949 group latrines — shared toilet blocks — and 48 examination halls. The tally points to poor school building conditions in many districts, not a single local pocket.
Swat tops the district list with 488 government schools said to be in poor condition, needing work on 518 classrooms, 301 washrooms and five examination halls at an estimated Rs1 billion. Mardan has 350 school buildings marked dilapidated (728 classrooms and 272 washrooms, also about Rs1 billion). Haripur lists 332 schools (811 classrooms, 336 washrooms and five exam halls) at roughly Rs1 billion.
Peshawar itself has 454 schools needing rehabilitation. Lower Dir has 271 (689 classrooms, 128 washrooms and one exam hall) at about Rs1.48 billion. Kohat’s 168 schools are tagged for work on 522 classrooms and 24 washrooms at an estimated Rs1.7 billion — among the highest district cost figures given. Charsadda needs rehabilitation at 174 schools for Rs874.7 million; Abbottabad’s 245 schools (130 girls’, 115 boys’) are estimated at Rs1.098 billion.
Smaller but still serious counts include Battagram (59 schools; Rs130 million for 53 classrooms, 29 group latrines and one exam hall), Buner (71 schools; Rs386 million), Upper Dir (161 schools; Rs368 million), Hangu (116 schools; Rs438 million), Karak (132 schools; Rs727 million) and Malakand (162 schools; Rs690 million). Further schools needing work were listed in Nowshera (202), Mansehra (174), Swabi (160), Lower Kohistan (110), Kolai-Palas (47), Upper Chitral and Upper Kohistan (38 each), Lower Chitral (35), Shangla (33) and Torghar (30).
Private school inspections still under way
The government has also asked the Elementary and Secondary Education Authority (ESEA), the provincial body that oversees school facilities and related checks, to inspect private school buildings across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
An education department official said the ESEA had so far inspected more than 6,000 of the 12,493 private schools registered with the Private Schools Regulatory Authority. The same official said the inspection exercise would take about another week to finish.
What comes next
The province now has a clear repair bill for government school buildings — Rs16.2 billion on current estimates — and a private-school inspection drive that is not yet complete. How quickly classrooms, latrines and exam halls are actually rebuilt will depend on funding and follow-through after these surveys.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ke education department ne 4,049 sarkari school buildings ko khasta haal kaha hai. Inko theek karne ke liye lagbhag 16.2 arab rupay chahiye. Yeh check Peshawar ke Dir Colony mein private school girtne ke baad hui, jahan 31 bachay aur aik ustani jaan se gaye. Walidain ke liye yeh baat zaroori hai ke school ki imarat safe ho — ab hikumat ke paas iska hisaab aur private schools ki jaanch bhi jari hai.
