Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mardan , No girls college in Katlang

MARDAN: Imagine a higher secondary school with 1,700 students against its capacity of 1,200 and 120 to 130 of them crowding a class.
This is the state of affairs in the Government Girls Centennial Higher Secondary School in Katlang in Mardan district. The sad part of the situation is that it is the only school of its kind in Katlang, where no girls college exists despite having a population of more than 200,000.
Katlang is a rural area 20 kilometres north of Mardan city. It was declared a tehsil by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti during his visit to Katlang on March 6. Katlang has fertile agricultural land and is located in an area containing archaeological sites dating back to the Gandhara civilisation.
The higher secondary school for girls is in Katlang town, which is centrally located in an area containing more than 25 villages. Teaching staff at the school complain that it is overburdened due to absence of a similar institution or girls college in the area.
Principal of the school Mrs Naseem told The News there were only 13 teachers in the school, meaning that the ratio was one teacher per 130 students. She lamented that the ratio of teacher per student was three times more than the educational policy of the government, which is one teacher for 40 students.
“We have requested several times verbally and in writing the high-ups of the Education Department for the provision of more teachers at our school but to no avail,” she said. According to the principal, the school administration often refuses admission to students, as the school cannot accommodate more because of overcrowding. She said it was a routine that desperate parents from the surrounding villages visit the school to seek admission for their daughters.
“When we deny them admission, the parents lament that they will stop sending their daughters to school as there is no other educational institution run by the government for girls in the area. The parents tell us they cannot afford to educate their daughters in the expensive private schools,” she explained.
Mrs Naseem remarked that the teachers ask four girls to share a single desk, as all classes are overcrowded. “There are about 120 to 130 students in a class. How can a single teacher concentrate while teaching so many students in a class?” she asked.
Saba, a Grade 9 student, told The News she aspired to continue her studies but feared that her dream of receiving higher education would not be fulfilled as there was not a single college for girls in the Katlang area and her parents could not afford to send her to the college in Mardan city.
“I know that many girls in my neighbourhood have given up their studies after passing the intermediate examination because of absence of a girls college in Katlang,” she said. Another student of Grade 9, Lubna said her father was a peon in a high school and his salary was just Rs6,000 which was hardly enough for making both ends meet. “How can he bear expenses of my education?” she innocently asked.
Lubna appealed to the government to award scholarships for the needy girl students to enable them complete their education and become useful citizens. Shah-i-Sultan, father of a girl student, said that there were girls colleges in Mardan city but it was not possible for poor parents to bear the expenses of sending their daughters there for higher education.
“The government should set up a girls college in Katlang and also open another higher secondary school in our area to meet the demand for female education and save the future of the girls,” he stressed.