Govt urged to prioritise girls’ secondary education

PESHAWAR: The members of a civil society organization on Wednesday urged the KP government to effectively implement the Annual Development Programme (ADP) 2021-2022 schemes on elementary and secondary education and give the highest priority to those relating to the girls’ education.

The representatives of the Blue Veins, an organization working to promote girls’ access to secondary education in KP, made the demand while speaking at a news conference.

The speakers including Qamar Naseem, Sana Ahmad, Mahnoor Shah and Tehreem Aftab quoted various potential development schemes from the ADP. The KP government was praised for making a 24 per cent increase in the education annual budget for the year 2021-2022.

They appreciated the measures such as the establishment of 70 girls secondary schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, provision of free textbooks and payment of stipends to primary and secondary students (boys & girls) in the merged districts.

The speakers hailed the construction of public sector schools, waiver of admission fee, rehabilitation and upgrading of over 2,100 educational institutions to increase enrollment capacity there.

Qamar Naseem, a girls’ education right activist, said: “ It is commendable that the government is responding to the needs of the out-of-school children in KP and the second shift in government schools has been initiated from September for the purpose.”

“We must ensure to bring 1.8 million out-of-school children under the education-net, especially girls, who make up 64 per cent of total out-of-school children to let them contribute to the development of the country after getting equipped with education,” he added.