70pc girls out of school in Shangla: report

BISHAM: Seventy percent of the girls in Shangla district are out of school, a jirga was told here on Sunday.

Alif Ailaan, a non-governmental organisation, had organised the event title “Shangla Taleemi Jirga” where it released its report to claim that 70 percent girls are out of school in the mountainous Shangla district.

The report added that 39 percent of those girls who have access to education only get primary education while 75 percent of the grade-V student could not even read the Urdu text.

It claimed that 68 percent boys and girls could not read English text.

Shangla is ranked 23 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for literacy while 26 percent primary schools have only one teacher.

The report said that 72 percent schools have no electricity, 27 percent lack toilets and 43 percent are without boundary walls.

Speaking on the occasion, Shangla Nazim Niaz Ahmed Khan said that his district government was making efforts to promote education in the district.

He said that scholarship programme had been initiated for poor students. He added that the district government had requested the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to take steps for promotion of education in the district.

“We want our daughters to get education but there aren’t sufficient schools for them,” said one of the elders at the jirga.