Girls hungry to learn in Pakistan's Swat Valley

From free curries to cash incentives, Britain has come up with all manner of schemes to bribe children to go to school. Compared with the attitude of school children in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, the contrast is stark. Just yesterday (Thurs) there were reports of parents in Southampton being offered vouchers for a free curry in return for their child having a good attendance record. Girls in the troubled region of north Pakistan are so desperate for an education that they are defying attempts by Taliban terrorists to stop them going to school.

Taliban militants attacked Kanju Chowk Elementary School in Swat this year solely because the teachers are women and the pupils are girls. All that is left are rooms of broken chairs and desks and shredded exercise books. "All the girls cried when they saw what the militants had done to it," said head teacher, Parveen Begum. When the Taliban took control of Swat, the teacher started getting threatening letters. "They said if we didn't close the school they would blow it up with all of us in it," she told the BBC. "We were scared, but we stayed open." Later, a group of Taliban militants went to speak to Parveen at the school. "They told us we could stay open if we all wore burkas, even the little girls," she says. "We did that, but they blew the place up anyway."

To stop girls getting an education and to pressurize the government, the Taliban systematically destroyed more than 300 schools in Swat were damaged in this way. Though an army operation earlier this year pushed the Taliban out of Swat, there is no real plan to help the community get back on its feet. In the past few weeks, schoolchildren have been starting going back to school after the Taliban lost control. But many schools in the Valley are wrecked and many remain closed. "I was so upset when I saw what happened here," says Nadia, one of Parveen’s pupils. "Our school used to be one of the best, but now we've fallen so far behind and we're forgetting all we learned," the 12 year old told the BBC. "I feel bad that the Taliban don't want us to learn," said 11-year-old Sumeira. "But we love coming to school. All of us here care about each other," she says. "The situation is so difficult, but the teachers are helping us."

The government says it knows that there is a need to help rebuild the schools of Swat soon. But it is also trying to keep the Taliban away. Militants are still in the valley and carry out sporadic attacks.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children