Rawalpindi audits 8,300 schools as KP hunts unsafe buildings

Authorities in Rawalpindi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) are checking school buildings for safety, days after a roof collapse at a Peshawar private school killed 33 people, most of them children. In Rawalpindi, the district administration has formed teams in all tehsils to inspect public and private schools “to prevent any untoward incident similar to those reported in Peshawar and Lahore”, Dawn reported.

Rawalpindi’s inspections

District Education Authority Chief Executive Officer Yaseen Khan Baloch told Dawn the teams began inspections on Sunday and will cover all 7,000 private schools and 1,300 public-sector schools in the district. The survey is to be completed by October 20, with inspections running daily from 8am to 8pm.

The teams are checking:

• the structural stability of school buildings and whether any are dangerous;
• fire-safety measures;
• emergency preparedness; and
• security arrangements.

Assistant commissioners of City, Cantonment, Saddar, Kallar Syedan, Kahuta, Taxila and Gujar Khan are supervising the audit of buildings and fire safety, and the District Education Authority is providing data and other help. Under the administration’s notification, the teams include representatives of the District Education Authority, Rescue 1122, Civil Defence and local government bodies.

Private schools ask for time

The All Pakistan Private Schools Management Association (APPSMA) said it supports the aim of the audit but raised concern about the schedule. Its leaders, including Central Senior Vice President Muhammad Furqan Chaudhry and North Punjab President Abrar Ahmed Khan, asked the deputy commissioner to revise the inspection timetable so institutions can prepare, complete their documentation and review security arrangements.

The association said the safety of students was the top priority and that strengthening school security was a shared national responsibility. But it argued that audits at short notice could create significant administrative difficulties, since some measures, such as technical inspections, expert consultations, buying equipment and structural changes, take considerable time. It said schools should be told in advance the audit standards, safety measures required, documents needed and inspection procedures, so that all institutions have an equal chance to prepare, and called for the process to be “transparent, organised, practical and aligned with ground realities”.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa identifies unsafe buildings

In KP, Dr Aamir Abdullah, a member of the Advisory Council for Education, said the process of identifying unsafe school buildings across the province had begun, with authorities taking steps to ensure the necessary safety measures after reports and videos shared on social media, The Express Tribune reported.

He said initial reports were reaching the authorities, enabling the Education Department to identify potentially hazardous buildings and act in time. He praised the Elementary and Secondary Education Department, saying its team had worked through the weekly holiday so that information from citizens could be examined without delay. He also thanked residents who had recorded and shared videos of unsafe school buildings, calling it an important social responsibility.

The Peshawar disaster

The audits follow the collapse of a roof at a private school in Peshawar’s Afridi Abad on October 15, which killed 33 people. KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi ordered a structural safety audit of educational institutions across the province, and the Elementary and Secondary Education Department formed a fact-finding committee. The school’s owner was arrested. Read our report on the Peshawar school roof collapse.

Why it matters

Checking thousands of buildings in a few days is a large task, and the quality of the inspections will matter more than their speed. The private schools’ request for notice will test whether the administration is willing to adjust, and the KP approach shows how much the provincial effort depends on public reports. For parents, the outcome that counts is whether any unsafe building is closed or repaired before children return to it.

This article draws on reporting by Dawn and The Express Tribune.