Daunting task: Parents struggle to get kids enrolled in public schools

Most capital residents prefer model colleges for their children

ISLAMABAD:

Admissions to public schools has become a daunting task for some in the federal capital.

Ishaq Khan is a father of two. He wants to enroll one in Grade I and the other child transferred from a public school in Sector F-10 to a public school in Sector G-6. So far, he has not had much luck.

“Getting a child enrolled in grade one has become extremely difficult. Several teachers and heads of schools have told me that the only kids getting admission are those whose have contacts in the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) or the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD),” he said.

There are 422 educational institutes in the capital working under the FDE, of which 20 are model colleges, while the rest are federal government institutes.

As the new academic year has just started, residents of the city who wish to get their children admitted in public schools are forced to call in favours from politicians, bureaucrats and journalists to secure admissions for their children.

Denial of admission for those without the right references is commonplace.

Another resident Abdullah Kamal, looked exasperated as he waited outside the Islamabad College for Girls (ICG). He said that the junior section of the school had refused to enroll his daughter in grade six as they had limited space.

Several school principals that The Express Tribune spoke with were reticent to comment on the record, but admitted that they were facing undue pressure for admissions, despite lacking seats for new students.

A senior FDE official blamed the mess on CADD. “We have 20 model colleges and every parent and guardian wants to get their children enrolled in them,” he said.

He said the FDE had a total budget of Rs7 billion, of which Rs1 billion was for the 20 model colleges, while the remaining six was shared by 402 institutes.

“My information says around 90,000 students are studying in 19 model colleges, while over 100,000 students are enrolled in federal government institutes,” he said.

Model colleges are considered relatively better by parents, as the have to meet higher standards for teaching and non-teaching staff as well as making transport available for students.

Commenting on the problem, Central Academic Staff Association President Rashid Khan, who is also a teacher at Islamabad College for Boys (ICB), said that out of 2,500 to 3,000 applications received recently, only around 100 applicants succeeded in securing admission at his college.

Despite that, every single day, the principal of the college receives applications, phone calls and requests from government offices for admissions, and as a result, 70 to 80 students are enrolled in each class instead of the suggested 30 to 35, he said.

“We have space for 2,000 children, but at the moment, around 8,000 students are enrolled at the college,” Khan added.

FDE Administration Director Raza Husnain said under-utilised buildings at FG schools with student bodies in the low hundreds could be put to use to resolve the issue.

The same plan was shared with the previous secretary, but the FG institutes’ employee union opposed the idea, he said.

CADD Secretary Hanif Khalid said they were aware of the problem and would resolve it soon.

Meanwhile, the government claims to have enrolled over 15,000 previously out-of-school children in various schools since last year.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2015.