Waste of resources: Girls in Yar Hussain rendered college-less despite presence of building

Construction has completed but college has yet to be inaugurated

PESHAWAR: Departmental negligence has left girls residing in Yar Hussain village without a college to pursue further education. The degree college in the area has still not been inaugurated and sits vacant.

“The residents of Yar Hussain village provided the education department above 40 kanals of free land. They want to educate girls in their hometown,” Israr Khan, a village elder, said. He added the college was still vacant, in spite of all the efforts made by the people.

In the 2013, Amir Haider Khan Hoti, chief minister for the province at the time, laid the foundation for the project, with a budget of Rs200 million. The plans for the college were drawn up on the request of ANP’s Mukhtiar Khan. Extra amount from the CM’s discretionary fund was released for the project as a hostel and residential area was created for the college. Every effort was made to make the project a success at the time. People of the area have been desperate for a functional college for young women of the area. However, nothing came of it. Even with the construction completed, the college never became functional. In his time, Hoti laid the foundation for 50 colleges in K-P and Yar Hussain Degree College for Women was one of them.

“It is the common property of the village, everybody happily transfer their ownership to the education department. Sadly, even after that, we are still waiting for the college to start functioning,” Mukhtiar Khan lamented. “I struggled for two years convincing locals to provide land for the college. Now that we have everything ready, the education department and the ministry are delaying the commencement of classes in the college.” Mukhtiar added the department keeps using the lack of teachers as an excuse for not starting the college.

Easy access

The female degree college is located on the main road in Yar Hussain village. It is easily accessible to all 10 union councils in the area. This location was specifically chosen as families in the village do not let girls and women travel very far, even for education.

“Currently girls have to travel all the way to Kernal Sher Degree College for Women or to Manki in Chota Lahor tehsil. Both these colleges are more than 16 kilometres away from Yar Hussain village,” said Munawar Gul Khan, a social worker invested in women’s education. “Often girls are forbidden from travelling that far, which is why we need the college to start functioning. It will make education accessible.”

Minister for Education Atif Khan and other officials from the department were unavailable to comment on the situation, in spite of multiple attempts to contact them.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 16^th, 2016.