Around 500 boys and girls of Wara Dalip Singh village have no hope of getting education, as two primary schools - the only facility for them - are in the occupation of some influential landlords.
Situated some 20 km from here, the village consists of more than 200 houses with the number of children falling in the age group of 3-12, according to a village elder, is 500. Two primary schools, one each for boys and girls, were built three years ago.
Two rooms of the school for boys are being used as a cattle pen by landlord Qamaruddin and his sons Salahuddin and Ijaz while students, whose number has dropped to 50 from 137 a year back, are forced to attend their classes beside a nearby pond either under a tree or in sunshine, depending on weather.
The boundary wall of the school has also been demolished while toilets are non-functional. The electricity meter has also been removed for non-payment.
The school was never given any furniture. After its opening, the education department deputed just one teacher. The girls school presents a more dismal picture of affairs in the education department. Since its establishment, it has seen no academic activity.
Since no staff has been posted there, no student has been enrolled. At present, one of its rooms is being used by Qamar to store fodder. A fodder-cutting machine has been installed on its lawn. Sharifan Bibi a village woman told that only few boys whose parents are well off go to nearby towns for better education. The rest of the children, including girls are illiterate and will remain so forever, she said.
Baba Jamal Din, another villager, said no education official had visited the village to take stock of the situation. He said one the staff of a non-governmental organisation intervened and got the boys school vacated, but Qamar and his sons again occupied it, saying the land where the schools had been built belonged to them.
He said most of the villagers had small land-holdings and could not afford expenses of sending their children to towns. Chaudhry Muhammad Mushtaq, a local politician, said that this was the story of most of the schools in rural areas of the district where boys spent their time in watching movies in village hotels or lending a hand to their parents in farming, rearing cattle.
Students of the boys school demanded vacation of their premises, appointment of another teacher, furniture, repair of the hand pump and the toilet. The EDO (Education) Abdul Rehman Malik said he had sought a report from the district officer concerned about the state of such schools.
"I will be able to say something after going through their reports", he added. Another education official, requesting anonymity, said the department had no funds to run schools like Wara Dalip Singh. "We do send requests for more allocations each year, but our requests are turned down."