4 classrooms of govt school in Attock start CRUMBLING.

Attock -- Within three years of its completion, four classrooms of Govt Boys High School No.2 Hazro town of Attock district which were constructed under United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) funded project have started crumbling, with major cracks in walls and beams and leaking pipes and roofs - forcing management to lock them down.

Four class rooms were constructed with the financial assistance of UNCHCR costing millions of Rupees under the Refugee Affected and Hosting Areas programme(RAHA) with the title of 'Improvement of Educational Facilities for Afghan Refugees and Host Communities in Punjab' and project was executed by Participatory Rural Development Programme (PRDS) in year 2017 but soon after its completion, cracks started surfacing in the newly-constructed classrooms due to alleged utilisation of substandard material and embezzlement of funds risking life and limb of students as well as teaching staff. Headmaster AltafHussain, when contacted, said that the roof and walls of these class rooms were in bad shape as apparently substandard material had been used due to which it had developed cracks and had become dangerous. He said due to cracks in the building the lives of students and teachers were at stake and they feared that the building may collapse any time. He said that he had informed the education department authorities, building department, district administration and execution agency of the project - Participatory Rural Development Society (PRDS) - but they had done nothing so far. Nisar Ali Khan, a social worker while talking to this scribe said that a healthy learning environment in schools is only possible when students and teachers are provided with adequate facilities, not only related to teaching and learning, but also safe and sound infrastructure.

When contacted, Project Director PRDS said...