FDE institutions lack facilities

FDE institutions lack emergency, first aid facilities
Islamabad: As many as 418 educational institutions of capital, under the umbrella of Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), are functioning without proper medical facilities for students. Making their life more vulnerable to different risks away from home.

The FDE, claiming to be a promoter of quality education, has no facility to cope with critical situation, if occurred. According to a report, administrative and management of these 418 institutions at various levels in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) including primary, middle, secondary, and high schools and degree level colleges conducting masters level classes, FDE is providing infrastructure facilities at all the institutions but have ignored to facilitate students as there is no first aid facility at any school.

As the summer season has approached and mercury is increasing day by day, majority of the parents of students studying in federal government institutions complained that school administration had nothing to facilitate students in classrooms in providing medical treatment that might end up with alarming situation.

"With no medical provision in the federal schools and colleges, our children have suffered contagious viral diseases, skin problems and dehydration in last few days," they said. Parents said since the temperature is touching 35 degree Celsius and dehydration occurred immediately under such circumstances and viral diseases were communicable disease that is why our children told them that over half of the class students had the same viral infection of flu, cough or skin related ailments. "Besides student may suffer deadly attacks for which neither institution has anything to counter, nor the directorate of education," they said. They also suggested FDE to take concrete measures to set up a dispensary or at least do something for provision of first aid facility to students in campus. "The other day my son suffered asthma which he never suffer with. And due to no provision of medical facility, he kept on in the same condition," said Sumaira Kanwal, a mother of student.

She said it was not only the situation of my children schools' but almost every education working under FDE are without dispensary and first aid medical treatment and if medical facility is available no proper attendant is available to treat the children. According to sources, over 200,000 students are studying in 418 institutions and it is surprising to know there is no developed systematic facility available to them.

When contacted Ashraf Nadeem, director, coordination FDE, to get FDE version, it was informed that he was in Korea on leave, hence not available for comments. Islamabad College for Boys (ICB) Head of Biology Department Samiud Din said basic health facilities were available at most of FDE schools and colleges including first aid provision but if any student fell seriously ill during academic timings there was not a proper systematic set up either to help him inside campus or to take him away to a nearby hospital. Daily times