SANGHAR, Aug 20: About 200 girl students of Khipro, who have recently passed their matriculation examination, may have to abandon the idea of getting higher education because the principal of the only college in the town has refused to admit them on the ground that it is not possible to accommodate them.

A couple of years ago, the Government Girls High School, Khipro, was upgraded to the higher secondary school to facilitate girl students to acquire intermediate education. However, due to shortage of teachers, laboratories and classrooms, girl students were admitted to the Government Boys College, Khipro, as an alternative arrangement till 2003.

This year, the principal of the college, Professor Ghanshamdas, has refused to accommodate the girl students, saying that there was a shortage of teachers, laboratories, class rooms and other facilities in the college.

According to him, the college has only 12 lecturers and one of them is going to retire after one month. There are no lecturers for Sindhi, English and Islamiat and only one teacher each for Physics and Botany.

There are more than 100 students in one class and science students have to wait for over a week for their turn to perform practicals in laboratories. In the situation, he said, even boys were facing difficulties and girl students could not be admitted to the college.

Traders leader Ismail Khan, Hari Krishan Khatri of the Hindu Panchayat and Mohammad Ali Lashari of the Sindh Graduates Association have urged the education authorities to save the future of the girl students, majority of them belonging to poor families. Khipro town is on the border of the desert area, Achhro Thar, and it takes several hours to reach Sanghar, Mirpurkhas or Hyderabad from there.