QUETTA: The Pakhtunkhwa Student Organisation took out a procession here on Sunday as part of its “Education for all” campaign aimed at creating awareness about importance of education.

A large number of students, their parents and teachers took part in the procession which was led by provincial Minister Dr Hamid Khan Achakzai and Chief Minister’s Coordinator for Youth Affairs Ahmed Jan Khan.

The procession terminated at the Bacha Khan Chowk where Ahmed Jan and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party leaders Dr Ahmed Khan Achakzai, Raza Muhammad Raza, Usman Khan Kakar and others addressed the participants. They said that people of every district in the province had been demanding better conditions in schools and for making it mandatory for teachers to take classes regularly because absenteeism among teachers was damaging the educational careers of thousands of students.

The speakers said a large number of children were engaged in labour across the province as they worked at restaurants and motorcycle and car repair shops. If these children were provided with the resources to educate themselves they could become more productive members of society.

They said that education was the need of hour, as the country and the province had become a hotbed of terrorism, extremism and sectarianism because of mass illiteracy.

They lamented that terrorists had blown up hundreds of schools with bombs and other explosives, especially those for girls, causing severe harm to the educational system of the country.

They appealed to parents to get their children, especially girls, enrolled because progress and prosperity of the country was linked to education.