KOHAT, Sept 20: The girls who have passed matriculation examinations this year are finding it hard to get admission in colleges for lack of seats in the three government degree colleges catering to the needs of three districts and adjoining tribal areas.

Hundreds of girl students are denied admission every year. And with the establishment of education boards at the district level and mushroom growth of high and middle schools in public and private sectors, the merit is also going up.

Girl students of far-flung areas, who got admission in the evening shift started by the provincial government to overcome the problem, are facing problems.

A father told Dawn that her daughter left home at 6.30am with other students from the Bahadarkot area. “She has to wait till 11am for the start of her classes and I pick her at 3.30pm.”

The principal of the Government Girls College told Dawn that she had received several applications from parents complaining of odd timings.

“It is not the problem of a single student. Parents want to transfer their children in the first shift which is not possible,” she said, adding that the government had issued strict directives not to transfer the girls to the first shift because the whole plan of second shift started in 12 colleges of the province would fail. She said the second shift was aimed at providing education facility to maximum number of students.

The first- and second-shift students share the same classes for at least three hours and the staff is same. The teachers had to spend another one-and-a-half hours to teach the second shift for which they did not get any extra payment, the principal said.

Around 150 to 200 students could not get admission due to limited seats and high merit every year. After a court decision, a ban was imposed on the admission of girls from other districts and tribal areas. An MPA from Kohat, Syed Qalb-i-Hassan, had challenged the admission policy three years ago and now only girls from Kohat district are offered admissions.

Parents preferred the Government Girls College, Kohat, for its proximity to Hangu, Karak and tribal areas of Orakzai Agency, Waziristan and also because it had hostel facility. The number of seats in the college has not been increased since 1972.

The government has established two colleges for girls in Karak and Hangu to address the problems of admission.

Former provincial education minister Imtiaz Hussain Gilani had succeeded in increasing the first year’s seats to 360, but the local administration later lowered them to 210. It shows that the capacity is there but the administration is not willing to admit more students for their own convenience.

Parents demand the establishment of another college for girls to accommodate the leftover students. NWFP Chief Minister Mohammad Akram Durrani had promised to establish a girls college, but no practical step has been taken in this respect yet.

The government has also been advised to upgrade secondary girls schools on Rawalpindi, Hangu and Bannu roads to the intermediate level so that students of these areas could get education near their homes.