Uproar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as the government accused of turning education into a business

Peshawar [Pakistan], October 7 (ANI): Teachers and students across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa intensified their protests on Monday against the provincial government's decision to outsource under-enrolled colleges and to tie promotions of college lecturers to MPhil degrees and research work, as reported by Dawn.

According to Dawn, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Professors and Lecturers Association (KPPLA) held a meeting chaired by Prof Qazi Zafar Iqbal, where members unanimously decided to continue their partial class boycott until the Higher Education Department withdrew both controversial proposals.

As part of the ongoing protest, teachers in public colleges suspended classes after 10 a.m., while students staged demonstrations across multiple districts.

The KPPLA action committee announced it would soon hold a press conference to outline its future strategy and directed local units to meet lawmakers in their constituencies. Teachers intend to brief legislators on the negative implications of outsourcing colleges and the new service rules that require an MPhil degree for promotions. They also urged elected representatives to raise the matter in the provincial assembly.

The committee warned that the protest would expand if the government failed to reverse its decisions. Meanwhile, student demonstrations were reported from Charsadda, Swabi, Mardan, and Mohmand districts.

In Charsadda, students of Government Degree College, Shabqadar, blocked roads and carried placards denouncing the "privatisation of education." They asserted that the move would make higher education unaffordable for poor and middle-class students, turning it into a "business for profit."

In Swabi, hundreds of students from the Government Postgraduate College, led by the Pakhtun Students Federation, blocked the Swabi-Mardan Road for several hours. Police later intervened and assured students that their grievances would be conveyed to higher officials, as highlighted by Dawn.

In Mardan, Jamiat Talaba Islam organised a similar protest at College Chowk, where speakers condemned the provincial government's decision to hand over 55 colleges to private entities.

They argued that education is a fundamental right, not a commodity to be sold for profit. The protests also erupted in Mohmand District, where students blocked the Peshawar-Bajaur Highway to protest the abolition of the BS programme and warned of a district-wide agitation if their demands were ignored, as reported by Dawn. (ANI)

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