TAXILA: Rawish, a grade 9th student at Govt Girls High School Thatta Khalil, jumps with joy after being told by her teachers that the school is being upgraded to the higher secondary school as the education department has issued a notification in this regard.

Established in 1991, the school caters to over eight villages of union council Thatta Khalil, comprising a population over 23,000.

Rawish is among hundreds of students to whom the doors of higher secondary or intermediate education remained closed as a girls’ college is located about 20 kilometres away in the Taxila city.

“I was thinking that my fate would be like that of my elder sister who is doing house chores despite securing good marks in the matriculation exam as there was no institution for higher education in the area. But if our school is upgraded to the higher secondary level, my dreams of getting higher education would come true,” said Nida, another student of the school.

Headmistress of the school Samina Basheer said hundreds of students of the union council were deprived of their basic right to higher education.

“Even in this modern era, female students have no means of higher education and they have to leave education as there is no institution,” she added.

She said that the female students of Sangjani, Chokkar, Pindi Nowsheri, Thatta Khalil and Dhoke Durab would be facilitated after the school is upgraded.

Munaza Peerzada, president of a local NGO, said the area had no institution for higher education. He said due to financial and social restrictions, parents were unwilling to send their daughters to the city, so girls have no option but to discontinue education after passing matriculation.

Haji Arif, a social figure of Thatta Khalil union council, said despite being located in the foothills of the federal capital, the area remained backward in education and health sector.

The union council Thatta Khalil is hometown of political heavyweight of the area Ghulam Sarwar Khan who remained federal minister twice. Former member national assembly Mansoor Hayat Khan, former member Punjab assembly Shafeeq Khan, ex-Punjab assembly member Sadeeq Khan and former MPA Ammar Sadeeq Khan also belonged to the area but they failed to change the fate of hundreds of female students of the area.

He lauded the role of local social worker and philanthropist Malik Sohail Akhter for donating a piece of land measuring over six kanals worth Rs120 million for the extension of the girls’ school.

Sohail Akhter said people of the area were still without basic health and education facilities. He said despite the fact that many ministers, members of parliament and even a tehsil nazim belonged to this union council, the area remained without basic facilities for political reasons. He said besides the land, he also donated Rs8 million for the construction of an additional classrooms for intermediate classes at the school.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2023