Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The successive governments in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) have failed to materialize their tall claims of championing the female education investment and had increase education sector resources for female institutions in the province.

Most of the provincial governments after holding the reign divert their focus from education, particularly for girl’s education and unfortunately their claims remain just only claim. None of the governments comes up with any empirical measurements and they found themselves indulged in other baseless priorities.

As per the data of the provincial education department and NGOs reports that majority of the girls in KP are deprived of education and their access to higher education is very limited.

Girls in most districts of the province end up receiving only primary-level education due to the lack of secondary education facilities while only a lucky few, with great difficulty, reach the university level.

There are certain reasons behind this setback for girls education in the province and the province is much behind to provide facilities for girls in the field of education particularly environment and resources for higher education in the province are scarce.

The spate of the terrorism in the province has also put the education as back and certain attacks on the girl’s education institutes also indicate that apart from the government dismal priority a particular mind set also wish to abstain girls from education.

According to the reports there are numerous girls’ colleges in the FATA and PATA which are closed after the drove devastation of the flood and terrorism.

The calamity of the provincial successive governments could be judged by the fact they failed to carry out even the exact senses of enrolled and none enrolled children in the schools the ratio of the girls in schools and out of schools is a far cry.

Most of the girls face lack of proper education opportunities being a girl meant inaccessibility to higher education institutes of the country a minimal ratio of the girl’s get their education to the level of college. In some districts, colleges are located in the bigger cities and girls from rural areas cannot travel the distance.

Furthermore, a majority of parents, even in big cities like Peshawar and Mardan, do not allow their daughters to leave their homes for education purposes, therefore they are not educated beyond matriculation. Under Pakhtun customs, couples are often wed at a young age.

This is more common in certain districts, where the parents arrange marriages while their daughters are still in school, which also puts a stop to their aspirations of getting higher education.

The regional manager of Khwendo Kor (‘Sisters’ Home), a non-profit, non-partisan organization that attempts to address issues faced by women in KP confirms that a very small number of girls in the province are able to reach the university level.

He said that parents allow their girls a primary-level education, the number of girls receiving higher education has gradually decreased due to poverty and cultural barriers.

He has further stated that after matriculation, parents often do not allow their girls to travel over great distances, or to other cities to attend college. While the wealthy are able to send their girls to universities, the poor can often not afford this.