PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ameer Haider Khan Hoti said on Monday that literacy ratio in the province has been significantly increased due to government successful measures for promotion of quality education and announced construction of 1000 primary schools in next three years under President fund to give further impetus to education.
Addressing the school admission campaign with the collaboration of Elementary and Science Education Department, UNICEF, UK and DFID here, the Chief Minister said that President Asif Ali Zardari was taking keen interest in education sector and his government has decided to construct 1000 primary schools under the three years programmes to bolster primary education programmes in the gross root level.
He said out of these schools 70 percent would be for girls as they are the most important segment of the society. Appreciating the close cooperation between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and other donors agencies for promotion of education, the Chief Minister said that his government was also working closely with federal government to enhance literacy and discourage drops out ratio.
The Chief Minister assured that the funds received from donors for promotion of education would be transparently utilized and the admission school campaign would be extended to all districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Chief Minister urged the international community and donors agencies to generally contribute for promotion of education projects and other important sectors so that the infrastructure damaged or destroyed due to militancy and terrorism could be rebuilt on modern lines.
He said repair and reconstruction work in addition to construction of new primary, middle, high and colleges under way in the province and cadet colleges and university has been constructed in Swat district.
He said government was giving special attention to women education and several programmes including stars of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been launched to achieve the desire objectives. In areas where government schools are not available, he said, several projects are being initiated under public private partnership to educate the deprived children in private schools.
He said 2005 earthquake, 2010 flood and militancy in Swat had badly affected educational infrastructure and the government was working day and night for its rebuilding. Senior Minister Rahim Dad Khan, Minister for Finance Engineer Humayun Khan, British High Commissioner to Pakistan Adam Thamson and Canadian High Commissioner besides other officials were present on the occasion.