Thousands of government school buildings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been declared unsafe, and the bill to repair them runs into billions of rupees, after a school collapse in Peshawar killed more than 30 students and a teacher.

A survey by the province's Elementary and Secondary Education Department found 4,049 government schools in poor condition, with preliminary estimates putting the cost of reconstruction and repair at Rs16.2 billion, according to a report published on 7 November.

Students moved out of dangerous buildings

On 1 November, the education department wrote to all district education officers ordering the immediate relocation of students from dilapidated and dangerous school buildings and their unsafe sections to safer places.

Students are to be moved to safe sections of the same school or to nearby government schools, and where necessary to rented buildings. The department made clear that only the unsafe portions and rooms of a building declared dangerous would be vacated and sealed, rather than the whole building being emptied.

The buildings had been identified as dangerous by the Communication and Works Department and technical experts. District officials were also asked to report on inspections, class suspensions, student relocations and corrective measures.

A collapse that forced the survey

The action followed the collapse of a private school building in Peshawar's Dir Colony, which killed more than 30 students and a female teacher. After the tragedy, the education department ordered safety inspections of government school buildings across the province.

On 15 October, the Communication and Works Department was asked to form technical teams of expert engineers in every district. Buildings were to be classified as safe, requiring repair or potentially unsafe, and district administrations were to be told at once about dangerous buildings.

On 18 October, the department clarified that teaching in buildings declared unsafe must stop immediately, with students shifted to nearby safe schools or another suitable location. Teaching can resume only after repairs are made and a fitness certificate is obtained from the relevant technical body.

Enforcement in Peshawar and Swabi

In Peshawar, the district administration began inspecting government and private schools with officials from the education department, Rescue 1122, the Communication and Works Department and the Private Schools Regulatory Authority.

According to Peshawar Deputy Commissioner Afaq Wazir, the administration has so far declared 13 private school buildings dilapidated and dangerous and issued notices to their managements to vacate them immediately, with instructions to move their students to safe buildings.

In Swabi, the district administration sealed around 120 schools, mostly private, after finding their buildings unsafe. Deputy Commissioner Nasarullah Khan said 1,224 of the district's nearly 2,000 government and private schools had been inspected so far, and inspections would continue until all schools had been checked.

What happens next

The safety of school buildings has also reached the Peshawar High Court, where petitions have been filed by the Peshawar High Court Bar Association and a lawyer, asking the court to intervene.

For now, the province's priority is keeping classes running while repairs are organised. Students from affected schools are being taught in safe sections, nearby schools or on double shifts, but the Rs16.2 billion repair estimate shows the scale of the work still ahead — and officials have not said where that money will come from or how long the repairs will take.