KP Orders Closure of Unsafe Schools

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Elementary and Secondary Education Department has issued directives for the immediate closure of unsafe and dilapidated school buildings after a recent private school collapse in Peshawar's Dir Colony resulted in over 30 student fatalities. District education officers and school heads are now mandated to identify such structures, suspend classes, and arrange alternative teaching facilities. Engineers from the Communication and Works Department will conduct structural surveys of all identified dangerous schools. This move comes as provincial education department sources reveal nearly 37,000 classrooms in KP's government schools are in dilapidated condition, with 19,224 needing reconstruction and 17,743 requiring repairs. While 11,542 private schools are registered, the Private Schools Regulatory Authority reportedly lacks data on unregistered ones, highlighting a broader safety concern across the educational infrastructure in the province.