PESHAWAR, May 16: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has established universities in different parts of the province but without providing new buildings for these campuses.

“The campuses of universities have been set up in the buildings of technical and vocational training institutes in different areas of the province,” said Provincial Minister for Technical Education Mehmood Zeb Khan here on Wednesday. Addressing a workshop, organised by German donor agency GIZ, on ‘Technical and vocational education and training’, the minister said that despite stiff resistance his department was deprived of six buildings.

The campuses of different universities were established in those buildings at the cost of technical education, he added.

The workshop was attended by GIZ communication specialist Mohammad Ali Khan, national deputy coordinator Raja Saad and technical education director general Prof Shakeel Ahmed.

The minister said that he personally took interest in saving those buildings as most of the students of technical and vocational training institutes belonged to poor families but he failed to sustain pressure from certain quarters.

Officials in technical education department, when contacted for further details, also said that provincial government was establishing new universities at the cost of technical education.

They said that Kohat University for Science and Technology was established in 2001 in the building of Kohat Technical and Training Centre and they were asked to arrange classes for the students of the latter in rented building.

Similarly, the campuses of newly established Abdul Wali Khan University (AWKU) in Chitral and Buner were established in the buildings of Government Polytechnic Institute and Commerce College respectively, they said.

The officials said that a campus of AWKU was also established in Swabi in the building of Government Vocational Training Centre.

They said that the buildings of Government College of Management Sciences and Government Technical Centre in Charsadda would soon be occupied by the Bacha Khan University. “The provincial government has directed us to vacate the buildings till the upcoming month of June,” the officials said.

Asked about arrangements of classes for students of both the institutions, they said that buildings would be rented for the purpose. It would definitely waste the precious time of students to shift the machinery to the rented buildings, they said.

Addressing the workshop, the minister said that successive governments paid less attention to technical and vocational education. He said that in the annual budget for 2011-12, the government allocated only 0.18 per cent of the total education budget. It was insufficient, he added.

He said that 24 new schemes regarding technical educations were reflected in the previous budget and implementation of those projects were in progress. He claimed that they were trying to establish technical and vocational institutes in each district and tehsil to produce skilled labour.

Mr Khan said that 24 per cent labourers, who went abroad, belonged to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Unfortunately, he said, most of them were unskilled. “Skilled labourers can earn more money if they go abroad,” the minister said.

Mohammad Ali Khan said that some of the technical jobs were still considered inferior in the society. He urged journalists to remove such misconception among the people.

Mr Saad said that the existing education system was not productive as after obtaining bachelor and master degrees most of the graduates roamed jobless.

He said that more attention should be given to technical educations because such students would not be burden on their parents and government. After completion of technical education, they would get job in factories or could establish their own business, he added.