Even after the passage of over three months , physical and psychological wounds of Army Public School (APS) victims are still fresh. Flashbacks still haunt the survivors and rehabilitation is still under way.
Yet the affected APS students are focred to take the looming board examinations. At the moment, the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exams are scheduled for March 25 and 27 for grade nine and grade ten students respectively. There is no official or unofficial indication that APS students will be allowed to give these exams at a later date.
While some survivors of the horrific massacre have been able to recover from their physical injuries, others continue to battle both physical and psychological distress. Signs of both were quite visible with the 30 odd students who were brought to Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) in Karachi for medical assistance. Parents of some survivors who are still in Peshawar have reported symptoms of PTSD.
“Trauma of such nature affects the hippocampus (an area in the brain responsible for recollection of facts and knowledge)… which can lead to academic difficulties and poor performance in exams,” says the letter signed by AKUH Assistant Professor Dr Tania Nadeem from the psychiatry department.
This document which has been given to the students under treatment at AKUH is addressed to the federal board of education, Peshawar Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, the chief of army staff and the APS administration.
“Appearing for board exams in the near future will be extremely stressful to them and may even be detrimental to their coping and long-term recovery,” added the letter.
The evident psychological duress of these students appears rather too trivial to authorities who, according to insiders, refuse to “disrupt the entire system” in order to facilitate schoolboys who suffered at the hands of terrorism. According to clinical psychologist Nida Khan, a lack of legislation has resulted in the marginalisation of psychological care in Pakistan.
Also read: Healing the scars:Survivors of APS school slaughter leave for foreign trip
