IMPROVING the standard of education was an important component of PTI’s election manifesto and Prime Minister Imran Khan also repeatedly lays great emphasis on this important sector for the development of the country.
Indeed it is so, however, the very decision of putting the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) under the administrative control of Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation and Mayor under a new ordinance, will only destroy the education with increased political interference.
As the Director General of the FDE will also be appointed in consultation with the Mayor, it will only pave the way for the favourites to assume this important seat on which only a professional should sit.
In protest against the government’s move, educational institutions in the federal capital have been shut from Tuesday for an indefinite period by a teachers’ representative body.
A total of four hundred and twenty four institutions including schools and colleges fall under the FDE which impart education from pre- school to masters’ level both in rural and urban areas.
All this requires substantial resources and in our view the Metropolitan Corporation will not have the resources to smoothly take forward the affairs of FDE.
The teachers are also rightly concerned that the move will affect their service structure as well as the problems of their pension and hiring will occur. Education indeed is not an administrative but a national cause, and there should not be any experiment on it.
We will suggest the government to review its decision and bring the FDE back under the ambit of Ministry of Education.
Already the closure of educational institutions because of Covid-19 greatly affected the education of our children.
Hence, there should not be any delay in revisiting the decision as the prolonged protest of teachers will only further hurt the students’ education. The educational institutions in the capital should serve as a model for the provinces to emulate.
For this, the FDE should be fully empowered and provided with necessary resources to transform schools as per the modern day requirements.
