Bhara Kahu’s first govt girls college set for opening

Islamabad

The urban areas of Islamabad must have enough government colleges for their female population but ironically, there is no such facility in Bhara Kahu, the capital’s biggest rustic locality inhabited by around 0.3 million people.

Currently, local girls keen on post-secondary education have two options — either they get themselves enrolled in colleges far from home or sit the examinations as private candidates.

Most of them settle on the former for being from poor, conservative families.

However, here’s a bit of news that will certainly cheer these little souls up: a degree college is opening right on their doorstep.

Right now, the building of the college is there but some civil and electrical work is in progress.

And if things go as planned, the Islamabad Model College for Girls, Bhara Kahu, according to a relevant Federal Directorate of Education official, will be offering admissions to intermediate courses in science, humanities and computer sciences in the next academic session beginning in August.

The college’s establishment was the brainchild of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, which directed the relevant authorities in June 2003 to materialise the idea.

There followed the development of the project’s PC-1, which was later approved by the Central Development Working Party in September 2004. However, the project stuck in a slow lane afterwards due to the red tape for allotment of land and thus, escalating its cost from Rs75 million to Rs250 million over the next years.

However, things were right back on course in August 2010 after the Capital Development Authority allotted over 40 kanals of land along the main Murree Road in Kot Hatial for the project.

Now, the FDE has asked the contractor to speed up civil and electrical work for the early handover of the school’s building to it.

Currently, construction of boundary wall is in full swing and the officials feel it will be completed in a few days.

Under the PC-1 approved in 2004, the college’s name was the Federal Government College for Women. However, it was changed to the Islamabad Model College for Girls in 2010 in line with the prime minister’s directives to ensure uniformity of educational institutions in the Islamabad Capital Territory.

The building has 16 classrooms, one auditorium and one laboratory each for physics, chemistry, home economics, biology and computer science, one library and an administration block.

It will be expanded under Phase II once the project’s revised PC-1 is approved.

According to an official in the know, a committee has been formed to purchase goods for the college, including furniture.

“An ‘in charge’ principal along with necessary staff members will be appointed to the college in a few weeks,” he said.

As claimed by the official, there is no teaching staff available for the college so the teachers will be ‘borrowed’ from other educational institutions.

Initially, the college will begin intermediate classes to be taken by teachers of other educational institutions, including Islamabad Model Postgraduate College for Girls F-7/2, Islamabad Model Postgraduate College for Girls F-7/4 and Islamabad Model Postgraduate College for Girls G-10/4.

Ironically, these colleges are already in dearth of teachers as many of their teaching staff members have been posted on temporary duty to Islamabad Model for Girls, I-8/3, Islamabad Model for Girls, I-14 and Islamabad Model for Girls, Humak.

The relevant FDE official, Zulfiqar Ali of the planning and development wing, was not available on his cellphone despite repeated calls.

However, Federal Government College Teachers Association president Professor Manzar Zafar Kazmi confirmed the start of classes at the Bhara Kahu girls’ college in the next academic session.

He said teachers should be appointed to the college without delay and that they should be given all necessary facilities to enable them to do duty efficiently.