There are only nine teachers against 42 sanctioned posts in Government Girls’ Degree College Upper Dir which is the only girls’ degree college in the entire Upper Dir district of KhyberPakhtunkhwa (K-P). Talking to The Express Tribune officials of the girls’ college said that despite the so called education emergency across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), the provincial government has failed to recruit teachers for the college and female students and staff also lack transport facility.
They said that girls are enrolled in BS Chemistry classes but due to lack of teachers they were shifted to boys’ college for classes. “You know the local traditions. Dir is a conservative area but even then girls have been sent to boys’ college which is not only against the local customs but also rules and regulations,” they added. “If the Higher Education Department fail to provide all these facilities at the college then the university could withdraw its affiliation which will be a great loss for the local residents as there are an estimated 50,0000 women in the district,” claimed the official.
The college is located in Dir proper but due to lack of teachers it has not been functioning fully. A local resident told The Express Tribune that no teacher is available to teach research in the seventh semester at the college due to lack of staff and the only way out is to send them to boys’ college. Officials said that that there are sanctioned posts of two grade 20 professors, six associate professors in grade 19, nine assistant professors in grade 18 and 23 posts of lecturers in grade 17 and 18 for the girls college. On the contrary, there are available only five assistant professors, four lecturers, and one librarian.
A local journalist Zahid Jan said that around 50 BS chemistry students including his daughter had to go to boys’ college which is not acceptable to many parents. “Parents simply think that their daughters don’t need education rather than sending them to boys’ college,” he said. He added that the lack of teaching staff at the college is an old problem and they repeatedly drew the attention of the local politicians and government officials towards it but the government is simply not willing to solve it. Another local social worker Yahya Faqir said that lack of transport is also a big problem for the staff and students alike.
“In 2019 the Chief Minister Mahmood Khan had ordered the provision of buses to the college but despite the passage of three long years there is no progress in this regard,” he said, adding that under the rules and regulations the college principal is authorized to hire teachers on daily wage basis but it is also not happening.
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