LANDI KOTAL: Fata Students Organisation has demanded abolition of quota system in educational institutions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to enable them to get admission on open merit.

The organisation’s president Shaukat Aziz told Dawn on Monday that hundreds of tribal students had passed matriculation examinations with A-grade, but they were denied admission to colleges in Peshawar and other cities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa due to limited number of seats.

He contended that specific quota applied only for foreign students, and Fata students should not be denied admission under that pretext.

Tribal students also belong to this country and they should be treated at par with students of other parts of Pakistan, he insisted.

Shaukat Aziz argued that literacy rate in Fata was not very encouraging and denying admission to intelligent and hard working students would further compound the situation in the tribal region.

He said that educational institutions in North and South Waziristan, central Kurram, upper Orakzai and Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency had been closed for a long time due to militancy, adversely affecting the education of thousands of students.

“The government is pushing the Fata youth to pick up arms instead of pen by denying them opportunities of equal and quality education,” he said.

The FSO president demanded that the tribal students should be given admission on open merit in the colleges of their choices in the province.

“The open merit policy will encourage a healthy competition among students of Fata and KP,” he said.

Meanwhile, as many as 380 students, who have passed their matriculation examinations from different schools of Landi Kotal, couldn’t get admission in the government degree college here due to limited number of seats. About 630 students applied for admission to the college against 250 seats.

Last year, the local political administration had provided financial assistance for starting evening classes which enabled the leftover students to take admission in the college.

However, this year the college administration has abandoned the evening shift due to non-provision of funds.

The college management said they were unable to continue the evening classes as they had no funds for the said purpose.

Published in Dawn, Aug 12th, 2014