BATTAGRAM: Most of the students in Allai tehsil quit education after passing their 10th grade examinations, as there is no government college in the tehsil.

Talking to this correspondent, local people said that despite announcements and promises made by political leaders in the past a college was yet to be set up at Allai, which had a population of over 300,000.

They recalled that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had announced to set up a degree college here during his visit to Allai in 1992.

They said that in 2004 then chief minister Akram Khan Durrani had also made a similar announcement.

Former chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti had also made a promise with the people of Allai in 2010 to establish a degree college in the area.

The residents said that Chief Minister Pervez Khattak during a visit to Allai last year laid the foundation stone of a government degree college, but the project had been thrown into cold storage.

Ameer Mohammad, a primary schoolteacher belonging to Bateela area of Allai, told this scribe that after completing the high school education the students quit education as there was no facility for higher studies in the area.

Nazir Mohammad, a schoolteacher from Roop Kanai village, complained that Allai tehsil was one of the most backward areas of the district where poverty level was high. He said that it was not possible for the poor people to send their children to private colleges away from the area.

The local people regretted that elected members from the area did not take the college matter seriously.

They said that political leaders did not want to establish a degree college in the area, as they wanted to keep the people illiterate for their political purposes.

Khan Zaman, a 10th grade student from Nogram village, said that like many other students it would not be possible for him to continue his studies because of no college facility in the tehsil, as he could not afford private education. Correspondent