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Students belonging to the Karakoram International University's (KIU) Hunza Campus of Pakistan Occupied Gilgit Baltistan (PoGB) on Saturday launched a protest showing their dissent over the alleged closure of the only educational institution.
The demonstrating students complained that this decision was not acceptable, as it would be a major loss to their education, Pamir Times, a local news outlet from PoGB reported. The students mentioned that this mid-session decision was taken under an alleged cost-cutting agenda and cannot be accepted as this Hunza campus is the only higher educational facility accessible to them. One female student belonging to the campus stated "We cannot accept the decision that the higher authorities have taken for us. And we will struggle against it, this decision is a wrong move against our future and education. Our syllabus has not been completed, nor do we have a choice to join another college. So where will we continue our education." In the Pamir Times report another student claimed "We have been told that bus services will be discontinued from tomorrow. This campus is important as we come here to study after covering long distances to ensure our growth, and now this mid-session decision is putting all that in jeopardy this will take our degrees away from us before the courses are complete, and that is not right." According to the Pamir Times report the Hunza Campus currently undertakes about 700 students taught by around 30 faculty members. The same students claimed that the campus has also announced a fee hike of 25 per cent. He said that such a hike is unaffordable for most of the campus students. Another female student informed that the majority of the student count in the campus consisted of females and a closure will result in a halt of educational opportunities for these students. She also alleged that the questioned judgment was nothing but a strategy to increase the student count in the main campus of KIU. In another incident the residents of Gultari Valley in Skardu staged a protest over the shortage of teachers in nearby educational institutions, another report by Pamir Times stated. In Skardu, the protesters, including students and young children, urged the government to take the issue seriously and undertake steps to resolve the issue as soon as possible. They said some influential teachers deployed to the border area used their political clout to stay in Skardu, leaving the underserved areas with little to no access to education. (ANI)
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