CHITRAL, Aug 22: The teachers and students of Chitral have demanded a separate board of intermediate and secondary education for the district owing to its enormous size and growing number of schools and colleges. The demand was made at a joint meeting of All Teachers Association, Chitral chapter of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa College Teachers Association and United Students Front here on Monday.The participants argued that as many as 25,000 students from Chitral appeared in the examinations of secondary school certificate and intermediate conducted by the Peshawar board every year giving it hefty revenue of Rs60 million in the form of examination fee.

They said there were 312 high schools and 63 colleges in the district, which made a strong case for Chitral to have a separate education board.

The students and teachers said Chitral was situated at a distance of more than 400 kilometers from Peshawar board while the government had opened educational boards in Kohat, Mardan, Malakand and Swat which were near to Peshawar.

They said Chitral district should have a separate board as area-wise it was one-fifth of the province stretching over an area of 14,850 square kilometers. They further said during the past 43 years of existence of Peshawar board, not a single student from Chitral ever grabbed any top position in the secondary school certificate or intermediate examinations.

In case of a separate board, all the top 20 positions will go to the Chitrali students which will entitle them to scholarships and many poor but talented students will be able to carry on their studies.

They contended that better administration of private schools and colleges and conducting fair examination will be possible only if Chitral gets a separate board. —Correspondent