Teachers to march on red zone today
Around 18,000 teaching and non-teaching staffers of schools and colleges will stage a protest march on red zone (parliament) on Thursday (today) against the federal government’s decision of putting the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) — the regulatory body overseeing the affairs of educational institutions in Islamabad — under the administrative control of the Municipal Corporation of Islamabad (MCI).
Representatives of the FDE joint action committee, which has given the protest call, said that the federal government did not take them in the loop before sealing the fate of their future as public servants. They said that they will fight tooth and nail to get the decision reversed. They said that the decision has hung their future in the balance, as, the MCI was already facing a financial crunch and was barely able to pay the salaries of its staff.
On the call of the joint action committee, teachers have already boycotted classes and schools have been shut for the last three days.
Several teachers and other FDE staffers, who spoke to The Express Tribune, expressed their serious apprehensions about the government's decision saying the MCI did not have the capacity and infrastructure to take the burden of such a huge number of employees, whose salaries, perks and privileges and transportation etc cost in million on a monthly basis.
They said that the FDE had been put under the MCI in haste and on the recommendations of PTI MNA from Islamabad Ali Nawaz Awan, who according to them, was the architect of this whole scheme. They said that the local MNNs wanted only local citizens to be inducted in the FDE and other institutions under the MCI, which was against the spirit of the federation.
They said that once the FDE was put under the MCI, the provincial quota in the federal education ministry will be done away with, and teachers seeking postings in Islamabad as deputationists under the wedlock policy will be denied the facility.
FDE Joint Action Committee Chairman Fazal Maula told The Express Tribune that if the ordinance was allowed to be implemented, teachers and other officers up to Grade-20 will have to report to area councillors, who, in the Pakistani political context, are usually habitual in meddling in affairs of institutions.
He said that if the FDE was transferred to the MCI with all its liabilities, which stand in billions, the latter will hardly be able to run its affairs and eventually, the local government will have to charge the fee from poor students, privatise schools and outsource the whole education system to private entities to bear its cots.
Maula also said that with the change of government at the federal level, the fate of the MCI itself remains in the balance as was witnessed during the PTI government tenure when the PML-N-led MCI government and mayor were not let to continue by the latter and this practice will continue in the future.
He said that the MCI cannot be compared with the mayorship of London or New York, where they have been in place for decades with a solid foundation, infrastructure with the mayor having all powers and resources. That cannot be replicated here until we have established a political system, he said.
Fazal Maula said that schools will remain shut and teachers will boycott classes until the federal government reversed the decision and handed back the FDE to the education ministry.
FDE Director Academics Abdul Waheed said that the FDE was facing a deficit of Rs4.5 billion only in the current year and the MCI cannot afford to take control of it with such a large number of employees and other liabilities. He said that political interference will take a toll on the overall education system if the FDE was handed over to the MCI without doing proper homework.
Additional Secretary Mohiuddin Ahmad Wani told The Express Tribune that the decision of handing over FDE to the MCI had been taken at the ministerial level after taking the input of the education minister and local MNAs as well.
He said that while during the transition period, the education ministry will ensure that the service structure of the current FDE employees stood protected and their job security was ensured.
He, however, said that the MCI will definitely frame its own future policy for the induction of new teachers and other staff and their service structure once it took control of the FDE. He said that the teachers will be requested to end their protest and resume classes.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 2nd, 2021.