WUNRN
PAKISTAN WOMEN TEACH IN FEAR – VIDEO
http://tribune.com.pk/story/755034/battling-without-a-gun/
PAKISTAN – WOMEN TEACHERS & GIRL STUDENTS IN PAKISTAN
TRY TO DEFEND EDUCATION AGAINST EXTREMISM COUNTER FORCES
29 August 2014 - We’ve
reached a point in time where education is thought to be the panacea for all
our misfortunes. Education is elevated to the extent of a counter-ideology
within itself, almost — symbolically combating extremism. At least that is how
it’s perceived generally. But there is little said and almost nothing done when
educators and their institutes are targeted in the conflict-ridden areas of
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
The recent incident where
three female teachers in Bajaur Agency were killed along with six other
passers-by in a bomb explosion is not an isolated incident where teachers have
been targeted. The streak of violence targeting teachers in K-P and Fata is not
a recent phenomenon. Many are reluctant to continue their jobs.
Bajaur Agency has a 4.7 per cent girls education ratio, the lowest in the tribal belt. More than a hundred schools have been destroyed by militants in the agency. After female teachers began to be targeted as early as 2007 the number gradually decreased. Posing a serious concern, the government tried to employ teachers from outside Fata, however, many female teachers have been reluctant to teach in the tribal areas. This fact is not just true for teachers alone but humanitarian aid workers as well who have been consistently targeted over the years.
Community level schools,
almost 70 of them, were established so that girls could be educated. These
female teachers were working for a non-governmental organisation and were only
serving at this one school. Working for a paltry sum, they left their homes in
Mardan and Malakand Agency for over a year and lived in the midst of violence
just for the sake of education. And while they remain no more amongst us, they
remain unknown as they were. A ritualistic condemnation from the government has
registered them as casualties of a war which keeps on gourmandising all that
civilisation stands for.
The larger picture,
however, is gloomier. Sectarian markers now plague the education sector. In
Hangu district, teachers have been killed after being warned by militants not
to teach in areas out of their respected sects. In the larger part of Fata,
schools are mere buildings, particularly girls’ schools where the drop out
ratio is higher in conflict zones. Blowing up schools once considered to be
making headlines is now not even considered to be condemned — probably because
so many keep on being destroyed regularly.
The saddest part is that
when the three women were killed in the bomb blast, an official for the
organisation they worked for requested that a plea be made for some economic
assistance of the families. Teachers working in conflict zones did not have any
insurance, and although the organisations they worked for would pay some
compensation it was too little.
This brings us to ask a
more important question — how much does a life of teacher cost? A calculated
answer would be: an entire generation. While the deprivation level in militancy
struck areas increase, the priorities of the media and government lie
elsewhere.
Words cannot suffice
anymore. If the battle against extremism is to be won, it cannot be through
physical combat or funds alone. We can keep constructing schools and make up
plans for eons to come but the fact remains the same, unless the people through
whom the plans are to be implemented are not secure the problem will never be
solved. Our misplaced sense of priorities and our goals do not match up any
longer. We want extremism and violence to end and yet do not even recognise the
long-term solution. If education is the solution to the problem — why don’t we
even know the names of the educationists that were killed? Those that were
fighting our battle but not with a gun.