PESHAWAR, June 8: Speakers in a seminar on Saturday called on the NWFP government to allocate more funds for the education sector, saying it was vital for improving the province’s literacy rate.

Stressing the need for better management and proper utilization of funds, they said that without it, it would be difficult to raise the education ratio and consequently hurt the province’s future development.

The seminar, entitled “Accele-rating Girls Education in NWFP: Role and Responsibilities of Parliamentarians,” was held at a local hotel here by the NWFP chapter of the Liberal Forum in collaboration with the United Rural Development Organisation, an NGO, and a private computer institute.

Blaming poverty as being the major factor hindering growth of the education sector, PPP (Sherpao) MPA Nasreen Khattak said that girls living in southern districts of the NWFP were deprived of education because their primary duty was to fetch water from distant places.

Criticizing past governments for their dependence on rhetoric instead of being practical, she said there was a need to increase female enrolment and create awareness for the benefits of female literacy.

MPA Riffat Swati stressed the need for arrangement of proper transportation facilities for girls, saying it was one of the major factors preventing girls from going to educational institutions, adding that setting up of a separate universities for girls would benefit the female population of the province.