HARIPUR, Aug 2: NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah has said that illiteracy is the root cause of all problems facing the nation.

He was speaking at the inauguration of the Frontier Education Foundation (FEF) Girls Degree College here on Saturday.

The governor also announced the start of a vocational training institute for women under the Elementary Education Foundation (EEF).

Apart from MPAs Akhtar Nawaz Khan and Qazi Asad, Abbottabad District Nazim Ghulam Mustafa, Secretary Higher Education Tariq Jameel and Haripur District Nazim Dr Raja Amer Zaman were also present on the occasion.

The governor in his speech lamented that adequate attention had not been paid to women’s higher education in the past.

However, the FEF was committed to establishing not only  institutes for higher education but also primary level ones in the province, he added.

The governor said the FEF had established 13 colleges in the province and was contemplating on establishing some more.

He urged the philanthropists to contribute to this sector so that maximum literacy ratio could be achieved.

The governor made it clear that the FEF was a public sector foundation where merit and transparency were ensured at all levels.