Students present tableau at a function held to mark 13th foundation day of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University, Peshawar, on Thursday. —White Star
Students present tableau at a function held to mark 13th foundation day of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University, Peshawar, on Thursday. —White Star

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Thursday said his government had prioritised the promotion of the girls’ education and therefore, more schools and colleges have been approved for them in the province compared with boys.

“Seventy percent of the newly-approved schools and colleges are for girls and 30 percent for boys showing my government’s priority for the girls’ education,” he told the 13th foundation day ceremony of the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University here.

CM adviser for higher education Mushtaq Ghani and SBBWU vice-chancellor Dr Razia Sultana were also present on the occasion.

The CM said it was embarrassing for all political leaders that they’d established only one university for women in the province over the years.

He claimed that the government had established two more women’s universities in the province, one in Swabi and other in Mardan districts, while separate women cadet colleges were established for women in Swat and Mardan.

“If we do not educate women, our future will be dark as an educated mother can bring up their children in a better way,” he said. Mr Khattak also inaugurated the gas supply scheme and a bank branch on campus.

He later distributed laptops to PhD and MPhil students of the university.

The CM signed four MoUs at the university regarding information technology and small and medium business enterprises.

He gave ordered for the widening and repair of the road leading to the university and promised the provision of buses to the SBBWU.

Mr Khattak said the government had done away with the class-based education system in the province.

“We’ve introduced religious and English mediums of instruction from grade 1 in schools. Its positive impact will be visible in few decades,” he said.

The CM said the class-based system, which provided English medium schools to the rich and Urdu and madressahs to the poor, kept a big number of children out of competition.

“We have done away with this system by English education from grade 1 in all government schools,” he said.

The CM said for the first time in the province’s history, his government established the independent monitoring unit to ensure attendance of teachers in schools and colleges and collect data of missing facilities.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2017

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