FDE daily-wagers to protest advertisement of regular posts

Education ministry sends summary for fresh tests for the posts

ISLAMABAD: The merry-go-around- surrounding the salaries and regularisation of daily-wage employees of the education department in the federal capital continues with the Education Ministry stating that they have sent a summary to the Finance Ministry to advertise as many as 600 vacant posts.

The education ministry has refrained from regularizing all those daily-wage employees of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) in the federal capital who have been asking to be regularised against vacant posts. Instead, the ministry intends to hold the recruitment process afresh.

Daily-wage employees of the FDE contended that the Supreme Court (SC) had directed the education ministry to regularise them. Instead, the daily-wage teachers claimed that the ministry had asked the finance department to advertise new positions while holding the recruitment process all over again.

The daily wage teachers now they will file a contempt petition in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) today (Monday) in which the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) will be made a respondent.

According to sources, the FDE sending a summary to the FPSC in June asking the commission to advertise new posts was a clear violation of the court’s orders.

The FPSC had then sent a reference to the finance ministry, attached with details of court orders, and asked to allocate 335 posts for the first category ( which were seeking posting orders) and 252 for the second category ( those cases which were sent to FPSC).

In this regard, a legal expert on services matter Shoaib Shaheen said that the court’s orders were quite clear in this case and that the FDE’s step was clearly a violation of those orders.

He added that the education ministry should have regularized the daily-wage employees on these vacant posts.

The Express Tribune tried to contact the Education secretary but despite multiple efforts, he could not be reached.

Owing to the contract situation for daily-wage employees, all such staff has on multiple occasions over the years protested against the government.

The latest episode came in May when teachers boycotted classes and demanded that the government implement the IHC and SC orders.

Gathering outside the National Press Club in early May, they held up placards and complained that the court had ordered the government to issue posting orders within 90 days but there has been no movement from the FDE even after the passage of nine months.

They said that lawmakers of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) should fulfil their promises they had made when they were in the opposition. The protesters dispersed following a meeting with FDE joint secretary Syed Umair Javed, but not before giving the government a deadline of 90 days to implement the court’s orders.

Computerised records

The Punjab government’s attempt to make teacher data computerised is creating problems not only for the staff responsible for maintaining the records but for the teachers as well.

The government is facing extreme difficulties in getting the online forms filled as most of the teachers are not computer literate to feed their data on to the “Human Rights Management Information Service”.

It has been disclosed that around 50 per cent of teachers either do not use an android mobile or are not tech-savvy while 70 per cent of female teachers only uses mobile for just making and receiving calls. The trouble for teachers doesn’t end here as most of them heading to shops to get their forms filled online are being asked for as much as Rs2,000 for the process.

In this regard, the teachers’ leaders, Muhammad Shafiq and Basharat Iqbal told The Express Tribune that the initiative was revolutionary as it would curtail corruption and bribing. However, they were of the view that the ministry should have initially trained teachers regarding the new system.

They demanded that a form submission date should be extended while a workshop should be arranged in every Tehsil to educate teachers about it.

Further, they suggested that the government could also arrange a grand workshop in which data could be fed at the spot by teachers with the help of trainers.

WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM QAISER SHERAZI IN RAWALPINDI

Published in The Express Tribune, August 5^th, 2019.