MINGORA: Hundreds of girl students seeking admission in various disciplines of BS programme in the Government Postgraduate College for Girls, Saidu Sharif, staged a protest here on Wednesday, demanding that BS classes in more subjects should be started in the college.

The girls from different areas of Mingora and Saidu Sharif said that they wanted to get higher education in their desired fields, but the college administration told them that they had not started BS classes in the subjects in which they sought admission.

Presently, the college offers BS degree in Zoology, English and Islamiyat and there are hundreds of girls who want to pursue higher education in other subjects, but there is no facility for them in the lone girls’ college of the area.

“There are no BS classes of computer science in which I want to get higher education. If I do not get admission in computer science it means I have wasted my two years of FSc,” Somia Ashraf, a girl from Saidu Sharif who recently passed her intermediate exam in computer science, told this correspondent.

Sumaira Bibi, another girl who wanted to get admission in BS Urdu in Saidu Sharif girls college, was also sent disappointed by the college administration, saying there were no BS Urdu classes in the college.

The girls said that though Swat University offered BS classes in their desired subjects, but their parents could not afford the university’s fee and they were not allowed to study in an environment of co-education.

“The Saidu college is the best option for us as education is free here and secondly it is the only college for girls in our area,” said Sidra Shaheen, another girl from Mingora who wanted to seek admission in BS psychology.

The girls said that they would come onto the streets if the government failed to start BS classes in more subjects in Government Postgraduate College for Girls, Saidu Sharif, immediately.

The parents also complained about lack of BS classes in the Saidu college. “I don’t want to send my daughter to study with boys. I demand of the government to begin BS classes in various subjects in the government colleges so that our daughters could get higher education,” said Iftikhar Ali, a resident of Saidu Sharif.

When contacted, an administration official of the postgraduate college for girls in Saidu Sharif said that they could accommodate six more disciplines in BS programme for which they had applied to the higher education department, but the college did not get approval for that.

The students have appealed to the newly-elected PTI government to immediately start BS classes for them in the Saidu Sharif college.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2018