KP Students Brave Terrorism To Take Secondary School Exam

[Toramana]

PESHAWAR — Against expectations, the number of students appearing for the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination in Swat, Shangla and Buner shot up to 52,110 in 2011 from 42,000 in 2010.

“We are really jubilant over the return of peace because violence has affected our education adversely,” said Shagufta Begum. She and her sister Nasim recently took the examination at the Government Girls’ School Ghaleegi, in Swat. Both feel confident about their test performance and hope further improvements in security will let them attend college.
Authorities worried that girls would stay away from the testing, said Muhammad Iqbal, chairman of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) in Swat. However, 10,282 girls from Swat, Shangla and Buner sat for the exam. Testing started March 16 throughout Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

“We have put in place additional security measures outside the examination halls that have emboldened the candidates, and they feel secure,” Iqbal said.

It has taken years for educational activities to recover from the militancy. In 2006, only 18,000 students (including 1,500 females) from Swat, Shangla and Buner took the exam, Iqbal recalled. In 2007, another year of militant domination, the number of test-takers grew to 21,000. The tally soared to 34,000 in 2008, the year the army began its campaign against the Swat insurgency. It stayed at that level in 2009.

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[Toramana]

KP, FATA Students Determined To Continue Studies

PESHAWAR — Students in the militancy-wracked Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and the adjacent Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) are determined to continue studying despite unrelenting attacks on their schools.

Even the students of the Government Girls’ Degree College Lund Khwar in Mardan, whose bus was attacked by militants March 1, are determined to attend classes.

“If we take these attacks to our hearts and minds, we would not be able to study,” said Khalida Bibi, a third-year student who was one of the 35 injured. “The militants want to slam the doors of education on us, but they wouldn’t succeed as we don’t fear them.”
Though she isn’t fearful, her parents are.

“They instruct me almost every day to stay away from crowded places,” she said.

Still, students in the KP capital of Peshawar also seem undeterred.
“Explosions can’t stop me from going to school,” said Javid Ali, 8, of the Police Public School, where an explosion last April 19 killed one student and injured nine others. “The Taliban are cowards, and we don’t fear them because we are brave Muslims.”

Militants have attacked about five schools in Peshawar this year.

“The militants are ignorant people and want to keep the others ignorant,” Ali, a grade 2 student, told Central Asia Online.

Workers are rebuilding about 500 schools and authorities will beef up security for the students’ sake, KP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said.

“I draw strength from the gallantry being shown by students,” he said. “Despite a relentless campaign against schools by militants, the young students are committed to go to their schools regularly.”

Students view education as the answer to the militancy.

“We want to continue studies even without a roof over our heads and without electricity,” said Shabnam Aurakzai, a first-year student at the girls’ college in Khwar.

“We are now convinced that schools are the only way to end ignorance and lawlessness because the militants are destroying schools to keep the wave of their terror alive,” said Kulsoom Javid of the same college.

"I cannot stay idle at home and we appreciate that our school is being rebuilt,” said Hamza Khan, a grade 5 student of Government Primary School Matta, which militants destroyed in April 2008. In Swat, Taliban militants have damaged 188 girls’ schools and 97 boys’ schools, leaving about 435,000 students without permanent buildings.

His classmates are happy to go to tent schools while they await reconstruction of their school, he said. Mohmand Agency saw 150 schools destroyed by militants from 2007 to 2010. Students there said they want education to uplift their area and their people.

“My dream is to become a doctor or engineer,” said 6-year-old Qasim Shah, a grade 2 student at the government-run Primary School in Pandyali Tehsil. “That is not possible if I stayed back and quit school due to fear of militants."

“Parents of our pupils have volunteered to protect the schools. The students are very bold and enthusiastic to be in schools,” said Naeema Shah, a teacher at a girls’ school in lower Dir where a suicide attack in February 2010 killed seven people.

In the first-ever attack on a school in Swabi District, militants blew up the Government Primary School in Kulalo March 5 , but the students continue their studies amidst the rubble.

“Getting an education is the duty of every Muslim. I am getting it without any fear,” said Kashifullah, a grade 4 student who is awaiting exam results to advance to grade 5.

At the Government Girls’ Higher Secondary School Shah Dand Mardan, the students had started wearing veils after school officials received threatening letters. Now they have resumed wearing ordinary uniforms.
“The bulk of our 1,000 (students) have now been emboldened by their parents, who accompany them to school,” school principal Lala Baha said, adding that the school releases students in groups at the end of the day.
"The anti-education campaign by militants has served to deepen the students’ desire for education,” she said. “The students think that education was something very important due to which the militants want to destroy the schools.”

“The militants are out to keep the students away from education and accomplish their mission of implementing their own brand of Islam,” said Jasmin Begum, a 4th-year student at Khyber Medical College.

“The challenges posed by the global development in the area of science and technology could be tackled only by education.

”We are required to improve the 50% literacy rate for males and 37% for females in the fulfilment of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. Therefore, we cannot afford any loss to education.”

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