Pakistan has suffered from the worst attacks on education than any country in the world. With over 1000 schools destroyed in KPK province, 105 attacks on schools worldwide between 2011 and 2012 and more than 130 children brutally massacred in Army Public School Peshawar, there is a dire need for an immediate scaled-up response to protect, schools, students and school personnel from future attacks.
Various provincial governments have taken additional security measures towards educational institutions but there is need for broader and comprehensive mechanism to ensure school security. If the Global Best Practices for Schools are analysed they encompass three broad intersecting areas: 1) Community-based interventions, 2) School-based interventions and, 3) Interventions for the most at-risk.
Community base interventions are the most cost effective measure for the protection of schools, students and school personals. School Management Committees and Parent Teacher Council can incorporated various community participants were successful in continuation of education post the 2005 earthquake.  The school based intervention would include a comprehensive school safety plan that provides guidelines to tackle an emergency situation, next comes a rigid plan to train staff, so they are aware of the exact procedure to evacuate of school building and communicate with security officials.
The third part of intervention is for risk prone regions. This includes zoning measures, which advocate the need to make consolidated schools in each district, which would facilitate access for teachers and students and reduce the strain on resources by the application of shift bases system of schooling. Another intervention would include the placement of emergency communications system that allows coherent communication between schools and authorities in the case of an emergency.
In essence, post December 2014 attack in Peshawar, every province in Pakistan must ensure to respond effectively in case of an attack. The government should encourage a broad based plan that incorporates the three outlined interventions. It must finance and provide funds to scale up the risk prone schools and communities. It should also provide adequate resources for school protection to reduce the vulnerabilities of children, teachers and school personals. Lastly international donors and private sectors support must be provided to create more safe schools. These steps would ensure a comprehensive safe schools initiative that would address the security concerns with respect to education and will be a courageous step in the achievement of universal education in Pakistan.
ARSHMAH JAMIL,
Islamabad, March 2.