SHANGLA: People from different walks of life here on Sunday demanded of the provincial government to take steps for improving girls’ education in Shangla district.

The demand was made during a ‘Taleemi Jirga’ organised by Alif Ailaan, an NGO working on education. District nazim Niaz Ahmed, concillors, educationists and students attended the event.

The participants said that people of Shangla wanted establishment of girls’ schools and colleges equipped with all facilities to promote female education.

“The government should impose Section 4 on feasible land for establishment of schools. The residents are not against girls’ education, but lack of schools and huge fee of private schools are the main causes of low female literacy rate in the district,” said Shahid Ahmed, an educationist.

Wakeel Khan, a resident, said that some local politicians were involved in shifting of the college from Bisham to Maira where the college had been virtually non-functional due to its location.

Tariq Aziz, a student, said that no schools had been established in Bisham tehsil since long. He said that there was neither a girls’ school nor boys high school in the densly-populated Kerai village.

Advocate Abdul Bar Khan said that such functions should also be held in other parts of the district for creating awareness of the importance of female education.

Hafeezur Rehman, a representative of the NGO, said that 70 per cent of Shangla girls were still out of schools for various reasons. The participants demanded of the provincial government to take steps for promotion of female education.

The nazim assured the participants that he would request the provincial government for establishing more schools in Shangla to resolve issues related to female education. He said that under the Rokhana Shangla project they would give laptops and scholarships to the position-holder students.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2017