KHYBER: The elimination of Pashto speeches from inter-school declamation contests among Bara tehsil children in Khyber district has sparked a strong reaction from teachers and parents.

The event which also included a sports gala was organised by the district education office in order to promote extracurricular activities among students of government schools.

While the sports events will continue at different avenues till next week, the education office also arranged competitions of Qirat, Naat recitation and speeches among the students.

When the organisers denied several pupils the opportunity to deliver speeches in their native tongue, parents and educators from various schools were taken aback. They said that when they asked for an explanation for not including Pashto language in the speech contest, the education officials told them that they had received high-ups’ instructions for speech contests only in Urdu and English languages and there was no mention of Pashto in the said notification.

Gulab Din, a primary school teacher from Akkakhel area, regretted that he himself had prepared one of his pupils to participate in the Pashto language speech contest but the student was not allowed to do so, much to the disappointment of the primary grade student.

He said that such events were organised to raise awareness and interest among students about their mother tongue and other languages, but the education department’s discriminating attitude had disappointed students, teachers and the parents.

Mr Din demanded of the provincial education department to conduct an inquiry into this ‘irresponsible’ act of the education authorities of the district Khyber.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2024