UPPER DIR: Dir chapter of Tanzeem-i-Asateza Pakistan (TAP), the teachers’ wing of Jamaat-i-Islami, has rejected the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s decision to introduce co-education at the primary school level and vowed that it would soon start a movement against the bill in this regard.

TAP district president Bakhtiar Zamin said here the other day that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf wanted to introduce western system of education in the province. He said that the government had adopted a double standard in the proposed bill. On the one hand, the bill, which has been tabled in the provincial assembly, seeks to declare Nazira-i-Quran and its translation compulsory, on the other its passage would pave the way for co-education, Mr Zamin said. He termed the second part of the bill dangerous.

He said that the provincial government should realise that the decision would put a bad impact on the primary students. “Co-education is against our religion and traditions and we will never allow such a decision to be implemented in government schools in KP,” he said.

Mr Zamin said that the government should establish separate primary schools for boys and girls in the rural areas to promote literacy rate in the province. The TAP leader demanded of the government to exclude the part of co-education from the bill, otherwise they would give a call for demonstrations across the province against this.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2017