The political administration on Wednesday started special weapons trainings for male and female teachers in the Mohmand tribal region. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to allow employees of all educational institutions, including teachers, to carry licensed arms on the premises to respond in case of a terrorist attack. The provincial cabinet has already decided to allow teachers and other staff members to keep their licensed weapons with them so that in case of any eventuality they could engage attackers for initial five to ten minutes before personnel of law-enforcement agencies show up to respond to the attack.

Initially, 12 female and 20 male teachers were given trainings in a local model school by the local administration with the help of Pakistan Army. Teachers terming the training useful said that although the primary job of the teachers is to educate but the APS attack had necessitated such weapons training for teachers to defend themselves in the event of an attack.

Earlier, educational institutions had been directed not to reopen campuses unless they fully carried out the government’s security guidelines. Suggested security measures include installation of CCTV cameras, deployment of more guards, and the fixing of razor wires on boundary walls.

This decision to provide arms and training to teachers has raised many eyebrows. Providing arms to the teachers would affect the overall environment of the educational institutes and would leave negative impacts on the students.  What is the lesson for students, that we are a society that cannot even provide a weapons free learning environment to them? Putting the bulk of the responsibility of protecting schools on the schools themselves and their employees is not the right approach, when this is not their job. It seems that government has failed to provide the security to the masses and trying to escape from its primary duty by pushing the real issue under the carpet.