Prof. Fidaullah Sehrai
Pick up any Urdu newspaper published daily from Peshawar. It is full of advertisement of admissions in the private and government colleges and universities. Go to the banks, you will see a long line of students who either wait to buy admission forms or deposit fee in them even in the severe summer. This long line even continues on the roads when there is no space inside the bank buildings to wait for your turn. This disturbs the traffic on roads also. This scene can be seen on all the university campuses of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The students stand in queue right from the opening of the banks to their closure. If they don’t get a chance to clear their dues, they come next day again to stand in queue. Thus the students feel enormous physical strain on the roads in the scorching sun.
Education is spreading like a wild fire in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The large numbers of students after passing their SSC Examination from the village high school situated in the far flung areas of the province go to the cities to get admission in the government and private colleges as they don’t exist in their villages. The government of the KP has realized this condition which is sincerely opening new colleges and universities in the district headquarters. Inspite of this their number is short and the number of the students is very large.
How to solve this inconvenience of the students and their parents? There are only a few higher secondary schools in the village which can’t absorb all the students who want to continue their students who want to continue their education. Therefore, they go to the cities where colleges exist. Studying in the cities is very expensive and the poor parents can’t afford their expenses of boarding, lodging, admission and tuition fee every month. Therefore, those students discontinue their education and try to get jobs which they rarely get. Either they work in the field with their fathers or sit idle in the hujras gossiping with the friends. Many of them start smoking hashish and quarrel with their parents for money to buy it.
I would advise that each secondary school should be raised to the status of higher secondary school in the village. This would reduce the burden on the government and private colleges in the cities which can’t absorb such a big number of students. If every high school becomes higher secondary school, then the students will go to the colleges in cities to do their BA, BSC degree courses. If in the village higher secondary schools arrangements are made for pre-medical or pre-engineering classes, the intelligent students can go straight to the professional colleges and universities in the cities. To achieve this purpose, the government should provide laboratories to the higher secondary schools with science teachers and technicians.
Government colleges can’t provide accommodation to all those students who study in them. Therefore, private hostels are appearing in every street in the houses which charge unbelievable fee as rent and expenses for food which only rich parents can afford. Will the education department of the KP pay attention to my simple suggestion by making all high schools as higher secondary schools which will reduce burden on colleges and universities in cities? This will stop the influx of the students to them. Will the Chief Minister KP Ameer Haider Khan Hoti instruct the Education department to do the needful please?
