30 April 2005	Saturday	20 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426

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PESHAWAR, April 28: Provincial Education Minister Maulana Fazle Haqqani has said that the government had made a record allocation of Rs2.5billion for education sector in the province. Of this amount, 70 per cent had been earmarked for promotion of female education, according to an official handout issued here on Friday.

This was stated by the minister while talking to the head of Division for Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development Dr Ralf Matthias Mohs who had called on him here on Friday.

He also said that 14 of the 20 degree colleges set up last year were for women while 16 more degree colleges for women had been established through the Frontier Education Foundation.

This year, he explained seven out of the 15 degree colleges were established for girls. He also said that an unprecedented increase had been recorded in the enrolment of students in the government schools due to the free distribution of books due to which problems of the government had also multiplied.

He also informed the German official about the scheme of the provincial government to conduct a door-to-door survey through out the province about the children going to schools or otherwise.

The German guest appreciated the government effort for the establishment of women medical college and women university for those girls who could not continue their higher studies due to co-education.

The education minister said that at places where there were no sufficient schools for girls coeducation had been allowed if their parents wanted to study in boys schools while where there were no boys schools and they with the consent of students’ parents.

He informed that last year statistics showed that 164,000 girls were studying in the boys schools while 34,000 boys were studying in the girls schools.

He said that they would be allowed to do so till the government provided them separate facilities of education.

He said that the provincial government had prepared a comprehensive scheme for universal education in the province which would cost Rs99billion for ten years.