KOHAT, Nov 17: Representatives of political and social circles have expressed concern over a decision to merge the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Kohat with the BISE of Peshawar. The president of the Private Schools Association of Kohat division, Haroon Niazi, speaking at a press conference on Wednesday said that the BISE, Kohat, catered to the educational needs of more than 100,000 students of three districts, two tribal agencies and one frontier region.

The merger decision would be a great injustice to students of far-flung areas who in the past had to spend two days in Peshawar to get DMCs and submit examination forms. Similarly, the Peshawar board was already over burdened and had become a hub of corruption and under the present circumstances it would be impossible for it to take care of three divisions and areas of tribal regions.

The secretary-general of the association, Mohammad Ibraheem, called upon the six MNAs, seven MPAs and district nazims of the area to raise their voice against the decision on the floor of the assemblies. He said that if the Kohat Board was abolished it would affect more than 100 employees besides the new building constructed with a huge cost of Rs400 million would also be rendered useless.

They said that the reputation of Peshawar Board had been tarnished by the scandals of paper leakage where the staff had been taken hostage by corrupt mafia. Even powerful chairmen from the military had failed to maintain secrecy and run it in a proper way, which resulted in their removal from the post.

Meanwhile, the social circles and nazims have threatened to start full-fledged movement and block the Indus Highway if the BISE, Kohat was merged with Peshawar Board. They requested the chief minister to review the plan and take a decision which is in the best interest of the people of remote areas.

The provincial president of welfare wing of the NWFP teachers association, Khair Ullah Hawari, told a delegation of experts that the federal government wanted to affiliate all schools with the Aga Khan Board, so it wanted to gradually do away with the present boards but the teachers would not allow it at any cost.

The divisional Amir of Islami Jamiat-i-Tuleba, Abdul Ghani Mughal, in a statement said that the board was established due to the efforts of former governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah to facilitate the students of remote areas. He announced to launch a joint struggle with other political organisations against any such decision.

The chairman of the BISE, Kohat said that a few days back the federal government had proposed to decrease the number of educational boards in all the four provinces. But they had not mentioned the name of any board in particular. He informed that at present there were seven boards in the province and a proposal for a separate board for Dera Ismail Khan was under consideration.