Students in danger

It is no secret that human life barely holds any value in Karachi, given the fact that every other day brings news of a murder or a death. It is, however, unconscionable even for Karachi that a school becomes a spot that could possibly endanger children's lives - but this city seems to have no limits on reaching new lows. Five men are dead in Orangi Town, crushed under a boundary wall of a government school that residents had been flagging as dangerous for years. The victims were drug users allegedly prying steel rods from the school's structure. And where one wall has already claimed five lives, another now endangers the lives of those 450 children currently studying in the school. The crux of this matter is not about who lived and who died. It is instead related to a much deeper problem pervading the public education landscape in Pakistan. How did the perimeter of a school become derelict enough to serve as an open-air drug den? And how did they manage to wreck it so much that it collapsed, without any government intervention stopping it in time? Most government schools across Karachi are suffering from equally terrible conditions. They're missing boundary walls, functioning toilets, working fans and operational lights - all absolutely basic infrastructure required for any building, let alone missing from a school. Orangi Town's tragedy is merely a symptom of a larger, crueler problem. Government schools exist solely for a tick mark on paper, but beyond their name and registration, they serve no student and no family. On top of that, now they're putting the lives of those students who they should be protecting and nurturing, at risk. It is nothing but blatant discrimination against lower-income families as the system continues to maim and kill, while still leeching every single penny off them.