Female students in K-P's Torghar, Kohistan districts seek colleges

PESHAWAR: Despite tall claims of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government, higher education needs attention in the province as two of its districts Torghar and Kohistan are still devoid of basic higher education facilities particularly for female students.



District Torghar, to everyone’s surprise, has still not built any college for students (male and female) while district Kohistan has only two colleges and that too for boys only.

According to a report of government colleges and higher education institutes in K-P published in July 2017, out of a total of 249 colleges across the province, only 101 caters to female students while in the remaining 148 colleges, male students are taught.

District Peshawar tops the list with the most number of colleges in K-P. In the city, out of the 25 colleges, 12 are for male students while 13 are for female students. District Mardan stands at the second place after Peshawar with 22 colleges – 12 for male and 10 for female students.

The districts of Kohistan and Torghar have absolutely no higher education facilities for females. Girls in the two districts are either deprived of getting higher education or they go to other districts to achieve their higher education dreams.

However, Adviser to K-P chief minister on information and Minister for Higher Education Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani believes that the state of the higher education system is stable in the province.

“The incumbent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has done a record work in higher education sector,” claimed Ghani. He said, previously only 170 colleges were functioning across the province, and now the number has increased to 220 colleges for both male and female students.

According to the results of population census 2017, the total population of district Torghar is 1,71,395, with 86,157 male and 85,230 female individuals. Similarly, the population of Kohistan is 784,711 with 434,956 male and 349,746 female persons.

In a bid to support his views, Ghani said, “Besides general colleges in K-P, 35 management sciences colleges and 14 others are still in the pipeline in the provincial districts.”

According to the minister, 50 to 60 general colleges are being constructed in varying districts and continued that, the areas where the higher education facilities are not available or need attention, remain a priority of the K-P government.



He said that the PTI-led provincial has established nine new universities in K-P including Abbottabad University of Science and Technology, Women University Swabi and the Shuhada-e-Army Public School University of Technology Nowshera.

“K-P government’s main focus has always been on female education,” Ghani said, adding that many new colleges in the province would be solely for them.