TIMERGARA: Local residents on Tuesday urged the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to reverse the decision of shutting down maktab primary schools across the province.

Talking to journalists here, Jamaat-i-Islami local leader Bakhtawar Syed and others said the government was making tall claims to provide basic education to every child, butitclosed doors ofeducation on children of far flung and remote areas.

They said the government planned to shut a total of 130 maktab primary schools in Lower Dir, which had been providing education to more than 800 students in different parts of the district.

The schools were opened in areas where there were no schools for boys and girls, an official of local education department told Dawn, adding some of these schools had been running for the last 15 years.

The district officer education Mohammad Riaz said shutting maktab schools was a provincial decision.

However, he said the education department hadbeen receiving complaints that these schools were being run by a single teacher at local mosque or hujra.

Meanwhile, the All Teachers Coordination council during a meeting chaired by its provincial president Syed Mohammad Shah on Tuesday demanded of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to include teachers from grade 7 to 16 in its recently announced upgradation policy.

The participants threatened to agitate if teachers were deprived of upgradation.

WORKERS JOIN PTI: Dozens of ANP and JI workers, including a village councilor, announced to quit their parties and join the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, at a function in Rabat on Tuesday.

On the occasion, the new entrants claimed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had controlled corruption, lawlessness, and eradicated the `thana` and `patwari` culture.

OFFICE-BEARERS: Badshah Munir was elected president, Javid Iqbal vice president and Ikram Khan general secretary, respectively, during the elections of the local chemist and druggists` association on Tuesday.

Other office-bearers would be chosen by the elected representatives.