KOHAT, Aug 24: NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah has said that the government is trying to exploit all its resources for providing better education to the girls to remove disparity from society by bringing them at par with boys.

Addressing a function in connection with the inauguration of second girls degree college in the old building of Zanana Hospital on Saturday, the governor outlined the need for checking the dropout rate among the girls by establishing middle and secondary schools in the far-flung areas besides technical colleges to help them in finding jobs and create a lot of conscious mothers. The college would be run by the Frontier Education Foundation.

He said a study conducted by the provincial government had revealed that the high ratio of dropouts among the girls was not because the parents did not want to educate their daughters but it was due to the absence of higher education facilities.

Iftihar regretted that the past political governments did not pay much attention to the problem which had created a sort of imbalance in society.

He disclosed that the NWFP cabinet had established the Elementary Education Foundation with an initial grant of Rs500 million where 70 per cent teachers and students in the institutions thus established would be females.

He said: “We want to do penance for the past mistakes and give the women, which constitute half of our population, their due share and rights.”

He exhorted the teachers to guide their students to select subjects like computer sciences, business management and commerce where there were more job opportunities. It would also save them from frustration as a result of joblessness.

Speaking on the occasion, Imtiaz Hussain Gilani, provincial minister for information, culture and education, said the first and last priority of the government was education and 27 per cent of the annual budget would be spent on primary and higher schools.

“We are for real change in the education system and do not believe in constructing cement structures which give no hope to the country. During the past 55 years the elitist class criminally ignored the government sector schools and instead called them ‘tatwala’ schools which have become a symbol of poor education for the deprived people. We want to change the culture because more than 80 per cent of our children are studying in these ‘tatwala’ schools. We must promise them a future,” he remarked.

Earlier in his welcome address, the managing director of the Frontier Education Foundation, Khalid Sultan Khwaja, presented a detailed report on the performance of his department.

He said the FEF was founded in 1992 but it could not perform its task and remained dormant for more than a decade. Now, with the help of private sector the FEF had been revived and weeding out illiteracy from among the NWFP women was its prime target.

He said one college each in Peshawar, Kohat, Haripur, Tangi, Bannu and Charsadda had been established whereas 10 more had been sanctioned, which would be ready by early next year.

The district Nazim, Malik Asad Khan, in his brief address, highlighted the problems being faced by the students in the government schools where billions of rupees were going down the drain every year on salaries of the staff “with a net result of zero.”

Only one per cent of the students could reach the professional colleges from these government-owned schools which was an eye-opener for the rulers, he said.

The governor later inaugurated the construction work on the Kohat-Rawalpindi road which also include replacement of five British-era bridges.