Imagine a room with buses and trucks moving with all their horns and noise on the roof, drain water gushing beneath the floor and train honking on one side multiple times a day. This room, or a couple of rooms, makes up a school below a bridge in Karachi and it has been running since the 1950s.
Amid all this noise, a teacher lectures students. The pupils no longer fear that they are sitting below a busy bridge in the biggest city of Pakistan despite the poor condition of roads and bridges in the country. This bridge is Khayaban-e-Iqbal Flyover previously known as the Clifton bridge.
Not just this, there are a total of 4 such schools – 3 for boys and 1 for girls – in Karachi and all of these have been operating for decades.
Three of these schools are run by the government, whereas another is managed by an NGO. Located in close proximity to the Governor House and the Chief Minister House, the schools were founded by All Pakistan Women’s Association (APWA) founder, Begum Rana Liaqat Ali Khan when she was the first lady. The aim of the educational institutes was to educate the underprivileged students.
Around 500 students are currently enrolled in the schools, getting free education. The shortage of teaching staff, the precarious condition of the bridge and live railway tracks are some of the reasons why students’ lives are never out of danger, however, no tragic accident has happened in over 6 decades.
Via The News
