PESHAWAR: Minister for Elementary and Secondary Education Atif Khan Wednesday said that provincial government was taking measures to promote girls education and constructing first Girls Cadet College in Mardan at the cost of three billion rupees. He was addressing a function arranged for launching Children’s Global Network Pakistan (CGN-P) research report. “Identifying Impediments to Girls Education in Kohat, Buner, Haripur and Charsadda districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa”. Parliamentary Secretary (MPA) Ayesha Naeem, MPA Fozia Khan, MPA Nagina Khan and other stakeholders attended the function. The Minister said that the KP Government was constructing 70 percent girls while 30 percent boy schools in future. He said that the government has constructed 1400 girls community schools and 500 more would be constructed soon while 500 more schools would be constructed by the Qatar Foundation. He said that the government has planned to establish IT labs in 17 schools and latter it would be extended to more schools across the province. The research report presented by Affan Javed highlighted the barriers faced by girls in pursuit of education, the causes which contribute to low girl’s enrollment in schools, factors causing high dropout rates and suggests possible measures which could be taken by the community, parents, teachers and the education department to help increase girls’ enrollment and retention in schools. The report suggested that poverty, early marriages and long distance to schools leading to safety concerns for girls were seen to be the most prevalent indicators of low girls’ enrollment in the respective districts. It also highlighted that an increase in girls’ dropout rate is observed at the middle school level where either parents stop sending their daughters to school on account of safety concerns, poverty of because of early marriages, hence, the girls could not continue their education further. The report further highlighted that KP government stipend programme is pivotal in increasing girls’ enrollment and retention in schools which encourages girls and parents to continue their education. Although education is free, yet upon maintaining 75 percent school attendance they are provided a stipend of two hundred rupees from which the girls mostly from humble backgrounds fulfill their educational needs without burdening their families. “Government’s monitoring and data driven reforms, teachers’ recruitment through National Testing Service, provision of free books and activities like summer camps are helping in improving the education landscape in the KP, however, the research highlights that an assessment needs to be conducted across the districts to determine the number of children with special needs and on the basis of the assessment, special schools need to be built to cater to the needs of these children especially girls who are currently neglected”. The report also recommends that vocational training component should be added in the school curriculum to encourage parents to see more value in educating their girls, enabling them to acquire vocational skills and to continue their education for longer period. The report also recommends measures to address safety concerns, improving child protection through introduction of helplines to report child abuse and corporal punishment and continuation of enrollment walks and campaigns across the province for increasing parents’ awareness in importance of girls’ education. The data was acquired by conducting twenty-five focused group discussions with parents of out-of-school girls, enrolled girls and drop-out girls along with interviews of ten education department officials and head teachers of the respective districts. The report also includes eight case studies of those girls who have faced discrimination or other challenges in pursuit of education.