PESHAWAR, April 2: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti on Monday launched a campaign to enroll 1.3 million children, especially girls, who are out of schools, in the province.
Launching the ‘School Enrolment Campaign’ during a special function at Chief Minister’s House, Mr Hoti said he owned the drive and would visit all districts in the province to make it a success.
He said in the next budget, allocations for education sector would be increased to the maximum possible level.
While praising donors for impressively supporting his government in all sectors, especially in education, the chief minister urged the civil society and NGOs to actively participate in the campaign for better results.
He said earthquake, floods and militancy had played havoc with the infrastructure in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and that being part of the frontline region in war on terror, people of his province paid tremendous sacrifices.
Saying militants don’t represent his province, Mr Hoti pointed towards the newly-enrolled students as ‘real representatives of Pakhtun nation’.
He said the terrorist mindset was not confined to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and rather, terrorists were present everywhere due to illiteracy and poverty.
The chief minister said militants had stopped students from going to schools in Malakand division over two years ago but once militancy had been defeated there, a university and cadet college had been established in its Swat valley, which was once hub of militants.
Speaking on the occasion, head of UK Department for International Development in Pakistan George Turkington said the new support from his organisation, DFID, would help hundreds of thousands of children to stay in school and complete their education by providing basic facilities such as drinking water, toilets and boundary walls and ensuring that teachers turn up for every lesson with clear learning plan.
He said the UK would build 2,000 literacy centres in the province to help illiterate women read and write.
“These centres will benefit hundreds of thousands of women in the coming years as they will help them earn more money, support their children’s schooling, access information and better understand their rights,” he said.
British High Commissioner to Pakistan Adam Thomson said his country had more to offer Pakistan on education than any other country in the world, while US Consular General in Peshawar Dr Marie Richards said her government and people through USAID had been contributing a lot to reconstruction and rehabilitation of militancy-stricken and flood-hit areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata.
She said the US was helping the provincial government rebuild 122 schools destroyed by militants in Malakand division.
The campaign formally began with enrolment of children in nursery classes of different girls and boys primary schools.
Unicef representatives, provincial Elementary and Secondary Education Minister Sardar Hussain Babak, Senior Minister Rahimdad Khan, provincial Law Minister Arshad Abdullah, Finance Minister Hamayun Khan, MPAs and senior Education Department officials were also in attendance.
On the occasion, schoolchildren performed tableaus and sang songs highlighting importance of education.