PESHAWAR, Nov 21: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti on Wednesday said promotion of education was the only way to fight unemployment, poverty and extremism in the country.

He was addressing a function organised at the Chief Minister’s House for the award of scholarships to top 10 position holders of the board examinations in the province under Stori Da Pakhtunkhwa Programme.

Under the programme, 10 toppers from each educational board of the province in matriculation and intermediate examinations are given the Rs10,000 and Rs15,000 monthly scholarships respectively.

The chief minister said the government had launched Stori Da Pakhtunkhwa Programme last year for providing opportunities to students of government schools to continue their education.

He said it was not a favour for high achievers and instead it was their right. He said these scholarships would help create environment of healthy competition in the government schools, while the process would be kept moving and no future government could halt it.

Mr Hoti said education was the only way to defeat unemployment, poverty and extremist mindset. He said nothing could betray educated youths.

He said intelligent students were the future and bright face of the country and the nation.

He said the government was committed to removing darkness of ignorance by spreading light of knowledge.

The chief minister said support and encouragement to intelligent children of poor parents enrolled to the government schools was the responsibility of the government so that they should get education and ably dispense their duty. He said educated mother was the guarantee of the developed society.

Mr Hoti said education sector was overlooked in the past but the present government had allocated 70 per cent of resources to the girl’s education.

He said last year, no girls appeared in SSC exams in Torghar district and that was a matter of concern for the government.

“Bearing this in view, we launched a programme for motivating girls to education in Torghar and Rs1,500 as monthly scholarships to families of girls in I-V grades and Rs2,000 to families of girls in VI-X grades,” he said.

The chief minister said the role of teacher was central and its responsibilities as builder of nation were secret to none.

He highlighted the importance of higher education and said funds to the sector had been boosted to Rs5 billion.

“There were 136 colleges in the province by 2008 of which 46 were for girls.

We’ve established 72 colleges during the last four and a half years and 46 of them were for girls,” he said.