Director Education Fata, Fazal Manan has said that all schools in the tribal belt would be equipped with a library shortly. Addressing principals of 15 schools from Fata equipped with classroom based libraries; he said that the directorate was working to ensure that like schools in settled areas every school in the tribal region would have a library.
He urged the principals to ensure best possible utilisation of libraries as well as their proper maintenance. Conceived and implemented by the Fata Directorate of Education and its ED-LINKS programme, the initiative involves the distribution of 67,000 books to 15 government high schools from five tribal agencies and three Frontier Regions (FR) namely Bajaur, Khyber, Orakzia, Mohmand, South Waziristan, FR Peshawar, FR Kohat, and FR Bannu. The schools were selected on the basis of their high enrolment rates.
The books, which are meant to be utilised by students from grades 6 through 10, cover a wide range of subjects including science, mathematics, English, Islamic studies besides dictionaries and encyclopedias. Each recipient school, which has been selected on merit, will get 4,465 books, along with five bookshelves each. The books were selected by a three-member books selection committee, in consultation with school principals.
The ceremony was also addressed by Shahjahan Afridi, Assistant Director Monitoring DoE Fata; Rana Jabeen, Principal Government Girls High School Sher Andaz, FR Bannu; and Samina, Principal of Government Girls High School, Subhan Khwar, Mohmand Agency. All the speakers thanked DoE Fata and ED-LINKS for taking measures to improve the education standard of schools in Fata, and stressed the need to inculcate the habit of book-reading among students.