PTI's education emergency and the plight of Chitral's female students

After assuming power in KP, the PTI government announced an education emergency in the province. Under the slogan, a number of reform packages have been announced to improve literacy rate and standard of education. However, since the announcement of the reforms no visible sign of change has been witnessed and the system is functioning under the same traditional pattern which was in practice before the PTI came to power in the province. But through the introduction of a monitoring system in the secondary education department, the issue of teachers’ absenteeism has been reduced up to some extent. Towards the higher education and colleges section, the PTI government has given no visible attention for the purpose of qualitative improvement. Under-staffing is still a big problem both in boys and girls colleges’ which has not been addressed or pinpointed either by political representatives or the PTI government in KP which must have clear vision for education. There are two boys and two government girls’ colleges in Booni and Chitral which are imparting education to the students of the whole district consisting of than 0.4 million population. The problem is that population of Chitral increased manifold within the short span of time which directly impacted the college enrolment but the facilities available in all the government boys and girls’ colleges have not been upgraded in line with the increasing enrolment which seriously disturbed teaching learning atmosphere in the institutions. In case of the Government Girls Degree College Chitral, there is only one sanctioned post for each of all the compulsory subjects for more than 1,400 students. According to the standard procedure, the teacher-student ratio should 1:40 but in Chitral the ratio is 1:200 which reflects the pathetic situation and also results in crowded classes and low teaching and learning process at the classroom level. The same situation is also persisting in case of (Boys) Degree College Chitral where sanctioned posts have not been increased but the student enrolment increased from just 50 in 1969, when the college was established, to 2,500 in the year 2014. If teaching faculty has not been provided residence in the same area where the institute exists then process of teaching will not be ensured in a proper manner. It is surprising to mention here that Government Girls College Chitral has no official bungalows for teaching staff, if teachers are not being provided with residential facility especially in case female teachers, how can they perform their duty effectively and efficiently. There are three bungalows attached with the college building which are occupied by doctors in spite of having separate doctors’ colony at Singoor. Provision of official residence is basic right of the teaching faculty in case of colleges in Chitral, which has not been addressed neither by political representatives nor department itself so far, which also negatively impacted the whole process of teaching and learning, as if teachers are not being facilitated how they can teach in proper manner. With the above facts and figures it is humbly requested to concern authorities, political leaders of Chitral and especially Chief Minister KP to pass immediate order for resolving following problems faced by government colleges in Chitral. 1. Problem of under-staffing should be addressed on immediate basis and there should be staff according to the standard procedure that is one teacher for forty students (1:40). Sanctioned posts especially in case of Girls Degree College Chitral should be increased according to the strength of the students. There is too much pressure of students on this college for admission and proper system of staff and infrastructure should be improved in the colleges for growing enrolment by increasing sanctioned posts in commensurate with growing enrolment. 2. All the vacant posts in the college should be fulfilled without further lose of time, as new session in the colleges has already been started and precious time of students should not be wasted due to existence of vacant posts. KP government selection of teachers in schools and colleges through NTS and ETEA is highly appreciable, and the “Teachers Assistant” selected through ETEA may kindly be posted against the vacant posts in all the government colleges on immediate basis. 3. Problem of official accommodation of the teaching faculty should be resolved on immediate by constructing separate bungalow for the teaching staff. In Girls college Chitral lack of residence for teaching staff is the biggest problem which causes inconvenience for the teachers and negatively impact teaching and learning atmosphere in the institutions. The three bungalows attached with the college building should be given to the staffs of Girls College Chitral immediately which are occupied by doctors, and the doctors should be shifted to Doctors colony Singoor. In future separate residential colony should be constructed for the Teaching Faculty of Girls Degree College according to their strength, without further lose of time. 4. KP government already announced Education Emergency in the province, if the above mentioned problems resolved it will result quality improvement in Higher Education which is regarded as backbone for economic development.]]>