Author Topic: Student’s problem in private hostels Mian Samin Jan  (Read 2047 times)

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Student’s problem in private hostels Mian Samin Jan
« on: February 20, 2009, 10:52:14 AM »
Student’s problem in private hostels Mian Samin Jan

PESHAWAR: A large number of students from all over the province come to Peshawar to get their dreams of quality and higher education fulfilled. As there are a few universities and degree awarding institutes in the public sector, so quite a great deal of influx of students takes place to the universities and institutes being run in the private sector. Also, a considerable enrollment is registered in the institutes, which offer certification and diploma courses in various disciplines. Generally these universities and institutes do not provide hostel facility to their students. Such students have to rely upon the private hostels, which have become the most profitable business in the city. Most of the private hostels are situated in areas like Hashtnagri, Tehkal, Arbab Road, Jhangir Abad, Board, etc. Some of these hostels were even named after the areas of the owners, a move to attract students of the specific areas. These include Mardan Hostel, Peshawar hostel, Marwat Hostel, Bannu Hostel, etc. Students living in these hostels face some serious problems. These problems include lack of hygiene environment, unavailability of quality food, and exorbitant hostel rent. Few students have informed "The Frontier Post" that the owners of these hostels charge almost two thousand rupees per student. It means for each room they get six thousand to eight thousand rupees depending upon the capacity of a room. These do not include food charges, they added. The students of some of the private hostels shared their problems. There is no facility of newspaper, Internet, common room, study room and even laundry in our hostels, they discussed. They said the food is economical but its standard is often very low. Moreover, if we are a bit late then we have to eat it from outside, they mentioned. We have to pay the monthly dues (rent plus food charges) in advance. We were given no concession in food charges until when the holidays crossed a week. As these are private hostels, so sometimes students have to live either with businessmen or people doing various types of jobs in the same room, which is a very disturbing factor for students because of their routines. Few private hostels also available in the city which provide some facilities but there charges were out of the reach for student community, they added. Arif Raza, a student of LLB final year said their hostel is located in the middle of workshops and thus the environment is not healthy for study. Riaz Muhammad, a student of M.Ed said their hostel is close to furniture factories and runway of the airport; they have to face extreme noise pollution, which disturb them badly. Tahir Afridi a teacher of Economics said he pays fourteen hundred rupees as food charges but he only takes dinner at his hostel because of his work. Imran and Ijaz who are doing MBA said their hostel is in a dilapidated condition; the roofs are muddy and the corridors are often filled with garbage. There is no mess facility in the hostel but they have to stay there due to cheaper rates, they added. Omer, a BCS student said there should be some sports facility in the hostel. He further said, although the spaces in private hostels were not sufficient for any sports activity but at least a table tennis can serve the purpose. Tahir Jamal, a quality control officer of a local pharmaceutical company was more cynical about the role of private hostels. According to him the hostel in which he lived had a very dirty environment. He alleged that even drug addicts were also accommodated in these hostels with the support of warden. He has now hired a flat and living there, he added. Saifullah, warden of a private hostel shared his views and said that he is committed to solve problems of the students and students do not have to pay extra charges for extra food in his hostel, he added. He further said they have to pay huge amounts in terms of building rent and utility bills that is why they are unable to provide some extra facilities to students. It is worth mentioning that like Saifullah's hostel, the students seem satisfied with the behavior of their wardens. This was confirmed by Ijaz and Naveed, students of FSc, who said their warden is very cooperative and gives due attention to their complaints. The students told the Frontier Post that this is of course, unfair but the onus of responsibility does not lie only with secondary owners (who pay rent to primary or actual owners), actual owners are equally responsible for this problem. They demanded that the owners must bring their profit level down so that the students can live an affordable dwelling. . They further demanded that the universities and institutes must provide hostel facility to their students and the concerned authorities in the government must intervene in order to facilitate the out station students.
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