MARDAN: Provincial Minister for Education Mohammad Atif Khan said here on Thursday that it was top priority of the government to promote female education.

Addressing a ceremony, held here to start work on a model school for girls, he said that 70 per cent funds of the education budget would be allocated to educational institutions for girls while 30 per cent funds would be spent on schools for boys.

MNA Mujahid Khan, MPAs Iftikhar Mashwani and Ubaid Mayar, the district education officers, a large number of PTI workers and local elders attended the ceremony.

The minister said the new education institution named as Ecol Fatima Alfahry Girls Model School was the first of its kind in the entire province. He said that the building of school would be completed within one year over 56-kanal with the total cost of Rs187.593 million.

Minister says Women University Mardan to become functional from next session

“Ecol Fatima Alfahry Girls Model School will have its own autonomous body on the pattern of Fazale Haq College Mardan,” he added.

The minister said that the word Ecol meant school while Fatima Alfahry was a Moroccan woman, who had established a madressah-cum-school in 1859 that was later converted into a university. That’s why the provincial government decided to name the school after the woman to recognise her services, he added. ‘‘The provincial government is giving priority to boost female education that is why we have been allocating 70 per cent funds of the education budget to educational institutions for girls while 30 per cent funds will be allocated to boy schools,” he said.

The minister said that educating a girl meant imparting education to an entire family as after getting married she looked after her children. He said that government had established Women University in Mardan that would become functional from the coming academic session.

The minister said that government would allocate Rs250 million for development of educational institutions in Mardan.

“The provincial government has planned to establish a company of Water Sewerage and Sanitation Mardan (WSSM) to improve the dilapidated condition of cleanliness in the district,” he said. He said that they were also planning to establish a cadet college for girls in Mardan for which about Rs3 billion was required.

He added that provincial government had also approved a family park in Mardan to provide recreational opportunities to families of the district.

Mr Khan said that government had also approved Rs300 million to improve sewerage and sanitation system in Sheikh Maltoon Town. The contract was being awarded to army that would start work on the project in the next two to three months, he added.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2016