Several measures are being taken to get the house in order at the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), which has been reeling under a muddle of administrative and bureaucratic affairs for the last many months.
As part of these measures, the newly-appointed acting Director-General (DG) Qaiser Majeed has sent three FDE directors back to their respective institutions.
The FDE oversees over 424 educational institutes in the federal capital which are under the administrative control of the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD).
Training Director Abdul Waheed was sent back to his school and Director Schools (male) Asif Niazi has taken his place on additional charge basis.
Administration Director Ashraf Nadeem was also relieved of responsibilities, with Budget Director Ghulam Soho filling the seat on additional charge.
Director Schools (female) Farida Yasmeen has also been ordered to rejoin her school.
The FDE had 10 director-level positions. Of these, four are permanent employees, the same number are from different educational institutes, while two have been brought in from devolved ministries.
“It was inevitable as their presence at the FDE was compromising the academic performance of their respective institutes,” said Majeed, adding that he was also reviewing the performance of the institutions which were looked after by these directors.
A meeting was also held at the FDE on Thursday to determine the status of over 1,300 teaching and non-teaching daily-wage employees.
Sources said it was likely that the daily-wagers will continue their work as a request for Rs170 million has been forwarded to the government to cover their salaries.
“Earlier, there was no proper mechanism to pay such employees, but from now there will be proper funding allocations for daily-wagers’ salaries,” said an official who had attended the meeting.
Meanwhile, Majeed said that work on the installation of a data management system at two capital colleges may also hit snags following an objection raised about contract modalities and provisions.
A total of Rs1.5 million was given to a firm for the project and it was supposed to be functional by September 1. “Nothing has been done despite the payment of Rs1.5 million to the contractor, but the contract is not binding,” he said.
The plan to install the system at four colleges and at a school under a pilot project included the installation of card-readers machines, staff training, data linking with the main centre and the system’s maintenance.
Two weeks ago, CADD Minister Barrister Usman Ibrahim marked a file to Majeed pointing out violation of rules and provisions while awarding the contract.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 5th, 2014.
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