UPPER DIR: Local students and their parents have demanded of the government and education department high-ups to provide teaching staff for the degree classes at the Government Degree College, Upper Dir.

Talking to this Correspondent, they said that various posts of lecturers had been lying vacant in the Degree College for the last two decades. They said that posts of lecturers of chemistry, physics, Islamiat, English and Urdu had also been lying vacant since long.

`We want our children to gethigher education in our own area, but successive governments and local political leaders failed to pay attention,` Zeeshan Khan said.

He said that due to unavailability of teaching staff and other facilities at the college, most of the students of degree classes had been affected.

The students said the staff for the intermediate classes had been teaching them as the government failed to provide staff qualified for teaching the degree classes.

Establishment in 1974, the college has 27 sanctioned posts for the intermediate classes, but six have been lying vacant.

The college was upgraded to the degree level 20 years ago, but stillteachers could not be appointed to the degree classes, which shows seriousness of the government about providing quality education to students. Asif Ali, a third year student, said that the college had 29 lecturers on the basis of `one subject, one teacher`, mostly for inter level students. He said that the total number of students at the degree college had grown to over 1,400.

People of Upper Dir had criticised the government for its failure to provide the teaching staff for the degree classes. The students and residents of Upper Dir have demanded of education minister Atif Khan to immediately order provision of teaching staff at the college.