Without hope: Issues galore at region’s only girls’ polytechnic institute

Letters and applications to the CAD ministry have not served any purpose.

ISLAMABAD:

From the way the things are going, the list of issues being faced by the Potohar region’s only polytechnic institute is going to be longer than the number of girls enrolled there.

Already facing a dwindling student count, the staff at Government Polytechnic Institute for Women in Sector H-8/1 is facing neglect of higher authorities as well.

Teachers at the Government Polytechnic Institute for Women in Sector H-8/1 have not been promoted since their joining of the institute. For some that means waiting for a time-scale promotion for the past three decades at the only institute for technical education for girls from Attock to Jhelum.

“Nobody in the capital is ready to hear about our problems; the Federal Directorate of Education says this is a technical institute and we should approach the Ministry of Capital Administration and Development (CAD),” said Rana Tanvir, a senior teacher at the department of commerce.

The institute offers diplomas in electronics, architecture, dress-designing and dress-making and office management. Established in 1984, 25 teachers hired at the time are still in the same grade, Basic Pay Scale-17. After 29 years they are still awaiting time-scale promotion. “The majority of teachers in Islamabad have been promoted time and again while we have to look towards the ministry which is yet to pay heed,” Tanvir said.

Another teacher told The Express Tribune that the institute is affiliated with the Punjab Board of Technical Education, but “when we talk to them about the issues we face, they say the institute is situated in the federal capital and does not come under the Punjab government.”

Teachers have been constantly sending letters and applications to the CAD ministry but to no avail. Former primer minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had announced promotions and allowances for the teachers after they protested outside Parliament House in October 2011, but neither has been forthcoming. Tanvir said they had been meeting senior officials for a number of years but “every time, we are told that the issue is in progress and will be solved at the earliest.”

Currently, three important seats are vacant and a single notification for promotions will have a domino effect.

The commerce department has been without a head for the last four years, while the electronics and architecture departments have been functioning without one since last year. A lecturer for Urdu could not be appointed in the last four years.

“There is frustration among teachers, the number of students is on the decline because the institute is not being publicised and lack of government interest,” said a teacher from the architecture department. In the initial years the institute had over 1,500 students and now there are less than 300.

CAD Secretary Riffat Shaheen Qazi said, “The file on all the employees’ time scale promotions has been sent to the finance division for approval and hopefully the issue will be resolved.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd, 2013.