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One million children face threat to education in NWFP

* UN warns getting all IDP children back to education ‘poses massive challenge’
* 600,000 children have missed 1 year of school due to conflict

ISLAMABAD: The United Nations warned on Thursday that one million children could have their education interrupted in areas, where conflict with the Taliban has damaged or turned schools into civilian shelters.

Around 600,000 out of an estimated 2.2 million people displaced by fighting between government troops and the Taliban across the northwest have returned home, a UN spokeswoman told a news conference.

“It is encouraging that some 600,000 people have returned but we are still looking at a very large number who have not,” said Stephanie Bunker.

The government has been returning internally displaced families to districts of Swat and Buner, where troops unleashed a massive summer offensive against the Taliban.

Massive challenge: Schools used as a temporary refuge for the internally displaced persons (IDP) are scheduled to re-open for the new academic year on September 1, but getting all children back into education “poses a massive challenge”, the UN warned.

“According to official sources, 187 schools are destroyed, 318 schools are partially damaged – 313 of them schools for girls,” said a UN statement.

“Schools being used as shelters must be repaired and equipped... while for IDP (internally displaced person) children returning to their places of origin, temporary structures... will be needed.”

“If not, an estimated one million children could face interruptions to their education,” the UN statement added.

UN officials said 1,167 schools out of 4,739 sheltering the IDPs had already been vacated, and that the government hopes to clear out the rest within two weeks.

Missed: More than 600,000 children enrolled in schools in Malakand division have missed up to one school year due to conflict, the UN said.

In the NWFP, only 22 percent of women and girls older than 15 are literate. Only seven percent of girls older than 10-years-old are literate in the tribal areas, the UN said. afp

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