Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: To enhance educational standards, and in compliance with the law, the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) has finally repatriated the teaching staff to their respective educational institutions.

According to the FDE notification obtained by Daily Times, in the body it has been notified that eight teaching/non teaching officials were being sent back to their respective colleges/schools. The staff were working on various administrative positions against rules and regulations.

Under the signed letter of Shakeel Ahmed Bhatti, it reads that the measure has been taken with the approval of the Director General FDE, (Shahnaz Raiz). Bhatti, who, when contacted, confirmed the decision.

The document states that the functioning of teachers on the admin positions was a clear violation of the law as well non compliance of the Federal Government Audit (FGA) observations.

Under the recruitment rules the faculty should have been appointed only for teaching purposes wherein the posting or transfers against the administrative posts is a violation of the appointments’ descriptions.

Furthermore, according to Section 2 of the Civil Service Act 1973, the faculty of the special service cadre, cannot be transferred to any other field job.

According to the official notes seen by this scribe it is stated that in its Special Audit Report (SAR) 2015-16, the Director General FGA observed ample irregularities in the FDE.

It was said in the SAR that the posting of teaching staff in the directorate is a void of the law. The SAR not only directed for repatriation of the teaching officials but also called for the fixation of responsibility on the authorities who did the violations.

“At some instance the DG FDE, Shahnaz Raiz, follow the FGA directions but the fixation of responsibility is yet to be made”, added an official wishing anonymity. Under the rules, the head of any department should be held responsible for making such regularities.

Besides the transferred officials, many have yet to be sent back to their original institutions. Tariq Masood is on the top of such a list. He, according to the sources, is the most favorite person of the DG Shahnaz. Currently he is serving as Director Colleges in the FDE. The Director’s post is an administrative slot while Masood does not have the experience because he only served as a teacher in his entire previous service. His actual posting is “Assistant Professor” at the Islamabad Boys College G-6/3.

A couple of other teachers, Sadia and Saima — are currently serving as Area Education Officers (AEOs) while by profession they are teachers in the IMSG F11/3 and IMSG E-8 respectively.

The AEO is an administrative slot and as per law it should be selected through the Federal Public Service Commission after passing through the whole procedure of the Commission. The available information suggests that beside the said rules, the posting/or transfers have been discouraged and declared void at various forums including the Cabinet Standing Committee meetings, in the Islamabad High Court and the apex court verdicts.

While sharing an official document, a senor official in the Capital development Division (CADD) said, that in the result of maladministration, around 450 officials of the department had approached the various courts for justice.

These exercises are only aimed at damaging the performance of the students. This becomes clear when one notices that not even a single student could get secure any position in the matriculation examination recently announced by the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE).

A Director in the FDE, who wished not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said that this was the first phase: to transfer the officials on their actual positions as per law, adding that the rest will be sent back in Phase-II.

Meanwhile, in a circular, CADD has directed that if any school/college yielded below average results in the exams held for enrolled students, the head of the institutions as well as the teachers concerned, would be issued show cause notices.

The result list of the SSC exams for 2016 shows that many schools have below average exam results.