PESHAWAR: Around 130,000 intermediate students of government colleges in the province have long been denied free textbooks despite the successive governments’ claim to provide free books to students up to intermediate level in the public sector educational institutions.

According to officials at the higher education department, like students of government schools, the FA/FSc students enrolled in the province’s all 185 government schools too are entitled to free textbooks but the latter have been deprived of the facility for the last eight years.

No one from the provincial government and HED has raised the issue at any forum.

“Only poor people take admission in government colleges. They all should be given free books to ease a large financial burden on their parents,” one of the government college principals told Dawn.

He demanded that the government ensure the immediate supply of free books to college students in line with its decision.

The government had begun providing free textbooks to the students of government educational institution up to intermediate level in the academic year 2008-09.

It was the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government, which began distribution of free books to students of primary school level. Afterwards, the facility was extended to the students of secondary school level.

A senior officer at the E&SE department said the current PTI-led government had allocated Rs2.5 billion in the fiscal budget 2015-16 for giving away free books to over four million students enrolled in around 29,000 government schools.

When asked why the college students are ignored in this regard, he said administratively, colleges were under the HED and therefore, it was the HED’s responsibility to arrange for free textbooks to college students.

“We take care of schoolchildren only,” he said.

When contacted, HED minister Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani said supply of free textbooks to students was a project of the E&SE department.

He said in fact, provision College students long denied free textbooks of education up to intermediate level was the responsibility of E&SE department.

The minister said colleges were for providing higher education.

He said efforts were afoot to shift FA/FSc classes to higher secondary schools.

Pakhtunkhwa Colleges Teachers Association president Nasrullah Yousafzai said it was discrimination that the government had been offering free textbooks to schoolchildren only.

He said denial of free books was injustice to college students as the facility was meant for both college and school students as decided by the government.

“It is not sufficient to provide free books to intermediate students only. Textbooks should be distributed to the students of higher classes too to their benefit,” he said.

Several first-year students of Government College wondered why they along with thousands of other students of intermediate level were denied free books.

They said both schools and colleges were managed by the provincial government and therefore, the decision on the distribution of free books should be implemented indiscriminately.

The students demanded an immediate end to ‘discrimination’ against them and provision of free textbooks to the students of colleges as well.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2015

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