DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Sept 30: The NWFP governor, Syed Iftikhar Hussain, has said that education was one of the top priorities of the government, for which all available resources are being mobilized.

The government is anxious to bring underdeveloped areas of the province on a par with the developed parts of the country, he said.

The governor was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the Qurtaba University of Science and Information Technology (QUSIT) here on Saturday.

The QUSIT chairman Abdul Aziz Niazi and vice-chancellor Dr Muhammad Saad also spoke at the function. The vice-chancellor of Gomal University, Qazi Hifzur Rehman, provincial minister Aminullah Khan Gandapur, Zila Nazim Latifullah Khan Alizai, Tehsil Nazim Fatehullah Khan Miankhel, teachers, civil and military officers also attended the ceremony.

The governor said that the government had allowed the private sector to start evening classes in government schools and colleges to raise the literacy rate. “This is part of the crash programme to improve the literacy rate in the country,” he added. He hoped that the private sector would come forward to grab the opportunity for a healthy competition with the public sector.

He said that in the past, the education sector was totally ignored, which plunged the nation into ignorance and Pakistan was at the bottom of the literacy list in the world.

“We have to march along side the progressive nations in the field of information technology and other important branches of science,” he remarked, adding, “neither the government nor the people of Pakistan can afford perpetuation of the status quo.”

Emphasizing the importance of computer education and information technology, the governor said that the computer and IT education had become the basics of the modern age and that the youth of Pakistan should be computer literate to meet the challenges of the 21st century.