MINGORA: More than 12,000 students, who passed Secondary School Certificate examinations, were deprived of getting further education due to shortage of space in the government colleges in the district.

More than 20,000 students in Swat were declared successful in the SSC examinations this year. However, only 6,000 of them got admission in FA/FSc and the remaining students could not be accommodated in the local government colleges.

There are only six government colleges in the district. The students, who could not get admission in intermediate classes in the sixgovernment colleges, were disappointed.

`I passed SSC examination this year with 805 marks but I was refused admission in the government colleges as their merit was very high and both the colleges had limited seats, said Khwaja Irfan, a resident of Mingora.

Mohammad Younus, another student, said that he got 750 marks and wanted to get admission in FSc pre-medical group, however, he was compelled to choose arts subject as merit for limited seats in science groups was high. `Merit in private colleges is low but my father cannot afford to expenses of a private college,` he said.

Zohaib Allam, who got 914 marks, said that he was disappointed as he was refused admission in Jahanzeb College. He said that provin-cial government could not establish a single college in district despite declaring education emergency.

Prof Shaul(at Baig, the principal of Jahanzeb College, said that there was an urgent need to establish new colleges. He said that Jahanzeb College was established in 1952 and the degree college for boys was established in 1995 but af ter that no other college was set up in the district.

He said that at least three to four more colleges should be established in the district to save the future of young generation.

MPA Fazal Hakim said that he was trying to hire some buildings for the colleges to accommodate the remaining students. He hoped that the issue would be resolved.