Principals appointed on merit: FDE director general

ISLAMABAD – Director General (DG) Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) Dr. Ikram Malik on Wednesday said all three appointments of principals in the model colleges are purely on merit.

The FDE had appointed principals of Islamabad Model College for Boys (IMCB) F-8/4, IMCB I-8/3 and IMCB F-10/3 a few months ago.

Some of the teaching circles had expressed concerns on the new appointments claiming that seniority of the teachers was ignored while making these appointments.

However, talking to The Nation DG FDE Dr. Ikram Malik said that all three appointments have been made a couple of months ago purely on merit as per provisions in rule i.e. seniority cum fitness for an administrative appointment of principal. Officials said that appointments were made after the interview and judging the performance of the candidates. Officials said that those upset by these steps, particularly, by appointments of principals, appear to be uncomfortable with FDE efforts to bring in a system of appointments, based on ‘fit for purpose’ and accountability principles. Officials added that seniority, based on date of joining of a service, may be a valid expectation when considering promotion for the next grade, insistence on applying the same principle to administrative appointments is a different matter.

Officials also said that the ‘seniority cloak’ appears to be an attempt to reduce and pre-empt FDE’s reform attempts and create tenure-based protection for under-performers.

Senior teachers informed The Nation that no one objected to the interview process recently concluded for principals’ appointments, where all grade qualified senior teachers were invited, confided a source from the FDE.

Further, a reform agenda cannot be handed over to those retiring in less than a year, neither retiring as a principal could be an entitlement, without regard to learning and institution development outcomes needing more time, said a senior teacher.

President school teacher association Malik Ameer Khan said that the sitting DG FDE has taken revolutionary steps to uplift the education standards in government run schools and colleges. He said that he has facilitated students and teachers both in all means of promotion and taking the education set-up forward. He also said that the FDE itself remained headless for more than three years and is now going in the right direction. The government had appointed Ikram Malik as DG FDE in October 2020.

However, officials also said that schools and colleges under FDE are facing shortage of above 1700 teachers of different disciplines.

The government had promised to improve the quality and standard of education in the public sector educational institutions yet the non-availability of teaching staff especially science teachers is affecting the quality of education. Despite establishing new educational institutions, the shortage of teaching staff has not met so far, said officials. Though educational institutions are closed due to pandemic, teachers and students are facing severe burdens which are affecting the quality of education.

As many as 423 educational institutions functional under the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) include 20 model set-up and 12 Federal Government (FG) set-up colleges. The official added that the schools and colleges from model and FG set-up are facing shortage of teachers in the subjects of English, Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry.

Article source: https://nation.com.pk/06-May-2021/principals-appointed-on-merit-fde-director-general