Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly’s opposition members and its coalition partner in the provincial government criticised the provincial government over the non-seriousness regarding education and said that in far-flung areas there still existed a lack of schools especially for female students.

The Jamaat-e-Islami member of the provincial assembly, Muhammad Ali, on a question asked from the education department said that there were around 67 high and secondary schools in Upper Dir but there were only five principals in these high and higher secondary schools while the rest had no principals.

“If a school has no head master or principal then how who will manage the school affairs or how a school will improve its performance”, Muhammad Ali asked.

In reply, the Elementary and Secondary Education Minister Muhammad Atif Khan, said that this time in district Upper Dir around five headmasters were in male schools and Grade-17 headmasters were working, adding that through the Public Service Commission soon male and female headmasters, principals of BPS-17, BPS-18, and BPS-19 will be recruited.

Muhammad Ali was harsh with the provincial government and said that there were no change in education and health in the last three years in the provincial government which showed that the provincial government had failed in education emergency.

Muhammad Atif Khan said that if the coalition partners were not satisfied with the performance of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government then they must be separate from the government and go to the opposition benches.

Senior Mininster, Inayatullah Khan said that it was a fact that the coalition government spent billions of rupees funds in the education and the health sector as the performance of the government was appreciated even by international organisations.

On a call attention, MPA Sahibzada Sanaullah, of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) said that in Timelgarah Hospital and category D Hospital Wari, there is no ambulance for the patients, adding that every day the people brought the patients after paying a high fee rate to private ambulances in Peshawar. On the occasion Atif Khan said that he would discuss the issue with the health minister and as well as with the chief minister and would provide ambulances in one month.

Muhammad Ali said that in his constituency and in the Upper Dir area there were around 120 girls schools which should be built on emergency basis, adding that girls schools were far away from children and because of that the girls education ration was low in the area.

In reply Muhammad Atif Khan said that that the provincial government was constructing girls’ schools and for this purpose 70 per cent schools were being constructed for girls while 30 per cent were for boys.

The Awami National Party (ANP) parliamentary leader in the provincial assembly, Sardar Hussain Babak, said that Maktab School was the initiative of the ANP government but the current provincial government closed those initiatives and deprived hundreds of children from education, adding that the “Store Da Pakhtunkhwa” project was also suspended in the province which was started for those areas where children were enrollrf and the government paid their fees from the provincial exchequer.

Muhammad Atif Khan said that the provincial government had not suspended any project including “Store Da Pakhtunkhwa” and Maktab Schools.

He further said that the government was constructing around 1400 girls’ community schools in the province, adding that the provincial government was focusing on girl’s education and already “Container Schools” were also in the progress phase and would be completed soon.