PESHAWAR: After over a decade, a girls' high school destroyed by militants has reopened in Miran Shah, the district headquarters of North Waziristan in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt where education still suffers after years of armed conflict. 

Once known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan were merged with Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in 2018 to bring relief to the volatile area that had long endured the presence of militant groups and military operations against them.

But while the region of 5 million residents has been merged into Pakistan’s political and legal mainstream, development is slow, with many, especially women, not having access to most basic services, including education. Female literacy in the erstwhile federal territories is about 12 percent, compared with over 50 percent in the rest of the country.

The Girls' High School Miran Shah was blown up by militants in 2008. Rebuilt after years, it reopened for hundreds of girls last week.

"The lone Girls' High School Miran Shah was blown up by militants, forcing hundreds of girls to either quit their studies or get classes in another temporary building," Fida Khan Wazir, assistant education officer, told Arab News on Sunday.

"We've enrolled 250 girls on the very first day, on August 18."

With 12 female teachers employed at the school, he said, parents are more convinced to send girls to study. New students arrive every day.

"We’re getting new admission each passing day and parents are now more willing to educate their daughters."

But the region's education still needs to regain momentum.

Before the tribal areas were battered by military operations which started in the early 2000s, over 700 girl students attended the Miran Shah school, Khan said.

Locals acknowledge that the years of militancy and counterterrorism were a great setback to female education.

"When militancy started here, boy students migrated to other districts of the country and got admission in different educational institutions, but most of the girls couldn’t continue their studies because they couldn’t move to remote districts without their parents," Miran Shah resident Shakir Khan told Arab News.

The rebuild school brings some hope the situation will improve.

"The newly opened Girls High School has all the facilities such as furniture, well-equipped computer laboratory, library and a spacious auditorium for functions," Khan said.

Local elder Haji Mujtaba said parents wish more educational institutes in the region were brought back to shape.

"We appreciate the step taken by the education department," Mujtaba said. "It should upgrade the existing schools so that our daughters could get higher education."