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 No long-term strategy can be devised for restoration of schools bombed by the Taliban in the tribal areas of Pakistan - but the schools must be rebuilt at all costs. When the history of education in Pakistan is recorded in some distant future, the Taliban's wholesale destruction of educational institutions in the tribal areas and northern Pakistan will find a prominent mention there. An important element of the extremists' strategy in their terror war was to destroy education in the areas that fell to their control. Even to the most primitive mind it would be clear that people, who remain uneducated and are not provided the opportunity to inculcate in themselves the faculty of critical thinking, would be easier to indoctrinate with the Taliban ideology
In 2004, when Maulana Fazlullah launched his FM radio in the hamlet of Mamderhai near Mingora, he made women - the most vulnerable section of the population - his targeted audience. He was compelling in his radio sermons that exhorted his audience to follow the tenets of Islam. He moved on to other areas, especially health and education. Polio vaccinations were declared to be un-Islamic and education for girls was denounced. A ban was announced to prevent girls from attending schools.
To drive home the point that they meant business, the militants turned to torching and bombing schools. When the first girls' school was bombed in Angoor Adda (South Waziristan) in February 2006, the Taliban realized how successful their strategy could be. It unleashed terror in the areas falling under their control because parents were reluctant to send their children to school in view of the prevailing insecurity and the panic caused by the bombing attack.
If girls' schools were attacked, it would affect female education. Uneducated girls would ensure a generation of uneducated mothers who would not be interested in educating their children - both girls and boys. Drawing lessons from the dictum, ‘educate a woman and you educate a family', the Taliban could foresee that the most effective way of stunting education in Pakistan was by hitting out at the base, specially girls' schools. Thus not only would those enrolled be affected, the future generations would also be kept in the darkness of ignorance. Hence the destruction of nearly 640 schools in Malakand Division - with 282 being institutions for girls. These figures were released by the Executive District Officer. Syed Irfan Ashraf, an academic at the Peshawar University, however says that the statistics he has collected from various sources in Fata give the total number of schools destroyed in the tribal belt as 300.
When the Taliban campaign was on the rise, bombing schools turned out to be a ruthless but calculated policy. It drove terror into the hearts of the people who kept their children away from school. Where schools remained standing, the fear of destruction did the job of decimating education. According to Ashraf, 91,000 students were affected.
Not only was their future left hanging in the balance, they were driven into a state of despondency as these passages from a little girl's diary reproduced by BBC's website amply established. "Some of my friends have left Swat because the situation here is very dangerous. I do not leave home.... My father told us that the government would protect our schools.... I was quite happy initially, but now I know this will not solve our problem.... Our parents are also very scared. They told us they would not send us to school until or unless the Taliban themselves announce on the FM channel that girls can go to school."
This is one of the deadliest blows education in Pakistan has been subjected to. Many believed that the strategy of bombing schools was directed not so much at education as at women. The general opinion was that women were the targets so that they received the message that they were expected to confine themselves to the chadar and the char deevari. More than half of the schools totally destroyed in Malakand are for girls (152 out of a total of 273). Of the total number of institutions damaged - whether partially or totally - less than half were for girls.
Hence it was not just women who were being targeted. More was at stake. The idea was to undermine education which is already in a dismal state in the country. According to one estimate, repairs of these schools will cost Rs. 6 billion. The EDO's report quoted above gives this figure but the calculations are not at all clear.
What was the government's reaction? It bravely ventured to rebuild many of the institutions destroyed earlier. It is, however, difficult to keep a tally. Many schools that are rebuilt and reopened are bombed again. One was attacked on the day of its opening when some Americans who were a part of the reconstruction effort were present at the site and were killed on the spot.
Hence while the war is on, no long-term strategy for education and the bombed schools can be devised. But at the same time it will be unwise to let an entire generation of children be left to their own devices. Hence the schools must be built - and rebuilt if they are bombed again - so that children can be sent to school at once. If this is not done, the children will lapse into a state of despair as happened with the little girl who wrote the BBC diary. It is also important that some new counselling elements be added to the courses in the schools so that teachers can help children cope emotionally with the trauma they have undergone. This is also important if the students are not to be left to the mercy of unscrupulous elements who are bound to exploit their desperation and lack of focus to lead them into the wrong direction.
But who is to incur the cost of building the schools? It is being suggested that foreign aid be sought for this gigantic task. There is also talk of philanthropy from abroad. This point of view is justified on several grounds. First, it is believed that Pakistan lacks resources and cannot generate funds for the reconstruction work that is needed. Secondly, it is said that this destruction has been wreaked by the Taliban who are the creation of circumstances in Afghanistan that are not of Pakistan's own making. The Americans encouraged the jihad in Afghanistan when the Soviets were entrenched there. The Taliban phenomenon is an offshoot of American strategy in the region. Hence the United States should pay.
But these are not feasible approaches. Admittedly, Pakistan is not rich in resources. But the education sector is now awash with funds as many of the donors believe that it was the absence of education that led to the rise of religious extremism and militancy in the country. According to the Pakistan Coalition for Education, Pakistan has received $27.7bn in ODA for education from 1999-2008. In this period only 20 per cent of the amount received was in the form of grants while 80 per cent constituted loans. As a result, 75 per cent of the ODA was consumed in debt servicing as the country's debt burden has ballooned.
Hence what solution do we have? The government must mobilize its own resources as well as raise funds from taxpayers and involve the community to rebuild the bombed out schools. A school building cess should be imposed on the taxpayers which should be channelled only into the reconstruction of the schools. Rs. 6bn on a one time basis is not such an exorbitant amount. But the fate of this cess should not be allowed to go the way of the Iqra tax that Ziaul Haq conceived and imposed. It may be recalled that the Iqra was not earmarked for education alone but went into the exchequer. It also became open-ended. It is also important that accountability and transparency are strictly enforced so that the schools are really built and new debts are not incurred.
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