PESHAWAR: “My daughter is suffering from kidney disease but she was forced to perform her teachers’ household work at Government Ashraf Kalli school that’s why I’ve to drop her out from the school,” alleged a mother to TNN on the condition of anonymity.
A resident of Zakha Khel area of district Khyber, She furthered that her daughter has stopped going to school in 2018 and now she is nine years old. The mother lamented that there is no other school where she can be admitted while they have no resources to attend a private school.
The mother revealed that for the sake of her daughter’s education, she requested other parents to get together and talk to the teacher to teach students instead of using as their domestic workers but no one was ready to accept her request, as a result, she has removed her child from attending school.
Another woman in the same area told TNN that though she is not herself educated but wants her children to get an education but at the school, teachers have forced little girls to do their household work instead of teaching in school. The woman added that she has four daughters who used to attend a government school in Malik Nadir Khan Village but when they returned they often complain that teachers have made them do their household work instead of teaching them.
“Teachers are being paid to teach students,” a mother told TNN. “But they have subjected the schools’ girls to do their household work and each one has been assigned a specific task.” She added that her daughters have been assigned the task to clean the garden of their teachers’ home. The mother said that some of the girls have been assigned the task to cut vegetables. However, she added that they have no idea how where and whom to complain about this attitude of school teachers.
A school student told TNN that whenever the monitoring team comes to the school teachers instruct them not tell anything to the team officials. She revealed that once a girl told the officials about the issue but once the team has left the school, the teacher has subjected her to severe corporal punishment.
Mothers said that they can only raise the issue through the media. They asked the KP education department to visit the school and take action against the school teachers so that the precious time of their children can be protected.
Farah, an official of education department Landi Kotal told TNN that the school has recently been shifted the teachers’ home to its actual building. The official added that she has already visited the school but after receiving the complaint, she will not visit it again.
