Over a decade: K-P sees less than two-fold increase in public colleges

Five colleges for women, three for men completed in 2013-14, says higher education dept.

PESHAWAR: Around 5,696 faculty and other staff members work at 183 colleges to cater to 99,031 male and 56,392 female students. This was stated in a handout issued on Monday by the higher education department.

In it, the department listed work it has done over the past year or so, including the completion of five colleges for women and three for men in 2013-14; and continuing construction of 51 colleges. Girls colleges were constructed in Haripur, Havelian and Batkhela. The handout highlighted Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa had 96 public colleges in 2001-02, a figure which has reached 183 in 2014.

In the Annual Development Programme 2014-15, 24 ongoing schemes were allocated Rs3.73 billion and 28 new projects Rs2.44 billion, stated the handout.

At the moment, according to the department, construction work continues for the Mardan campus of Abdul Wali Khan University and a library in Lakki Marwat while public libraries in Kohat and Chitral were completed in June 2014. Financial support was provided to ten universities and Khushal Khan University was established in Karak.

The statement added a teachers training academy was established in Hayatabad in Peshawar where teachers are provided pre-service and in-service training. In an attempt to encourage research and teacher development, Rs60 million was set aside for four foreign, four local and two foreign-local PhD scholarships. A one-time grant of Rs100 million has been approved for 390 faculty members.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2014.