Most new schools, colleges built in K-P are for girls

CM Khattak says PTI-led government prioritising female education

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Pervez Khattak announced on Thursday that educating women was the main priority of his government.

“Around 70 per cent of approvals for new schools and colleges are for girls and only 30 per cent are for boys,” he revealed while addressing at the 13th Foundation Day Ceremony of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University in Peshawar on Thursday.

The chief minister said that the previous governments set up just one university for women in the entire province. He claimed that the current government had set up twice as many women universities,¬ one each in the districts of Swabi and Mardan, while segregated women cadet colleges were established in Swat and Mardan.

“We need to educate our women for a brighter future of our children. Educated mothers can help provide a better upbringing for their children,” the chief minister shared.



He said when the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) took over the reins of government in the province, they found that 50 per cent of teachers had the habit of being absent from schools. Due to this truant behaviour, the equally as many students also skipped classes.

“The PTI-led government established the Independent Monitoring Unit to keep a check on the attendance of teachers and collect data of missing facilities at schools,” Khattak explained.

He claimed that currently, nearly all teachers attend school, clocking in on time. Moreover, the attendance of student too has jumped to 100 per cent in many government schools.

“The class system (tabqati nizam) education has greatly impacted the education system in the country because there is English medium for wealthy children and Urdu medium for poor children, as a result the poor cannot compete with students of the English medium institutions in every sector,” he shared.

Khattak added that the provincial government was trying to introduce an equalitarian education system in government, private schools and religious seminaries to produce youngsters who are on equal footing and where there is no concept of poor or rich.

The chief minister shared that political interference had pegged back education and health institutions of this province. He said that the incumbent government overcome the political involvement in state institutions and directed all departments that strict action would be taken against the officers involved.



Pointing towards the action taken against cheaters, he said that in the past, entire examination halls were ‘sold’ for better results. But the government, taking serious note of the issue, had to install closed-circuit television cameras in examination halls.

While admitting that the pass percentage in the recent SSC exams was low, but so was the level of cheating. He said that initially, people were unhappy with the government, but he promised that the measures would bore positive results in time.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 22^nd, 2017.