Zubair Qureshi
The Senate standing committee on education has sought a list of the teachers working in 423 schools and colleges under the Federal Directorate of education (FDE) on deputation basis for years and waiting for the federal government to regularize them as per policy decision taken some seven years ago.
Currently, around 300 teachers are working in FDE schools on deputation. However, despite their hard work and productivity they are permanently under the threat of repatriation. In the tenure of the former Director General, Syed Umair Javed, FDE issued repatriation letters almost on daily basis (despite coronavirus) to these teachers forcing them to get stay from the Islamabad High Court (IHC).
Later, on protest from the employees and the teachers the government had to transfer him and appointed Ms Zia Batool as Acting DG.
The new DG after taking over the charge of the Directorate has taken some steps that are appreciated by the staff and employees of the FDE as she has promised a respectable status for the FDE teachers and employees and is personally looking after how things can be improved.
Teachers on deputation have also expressed their hope she will take up their absorption case with the authorities as already Islamabad schools and colleges are short of staff and repatriating these teachers en masse will affect the output of schools.
The teachers on deputation belong to all areas of Pakistan Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) and GB and were taken by the various governments in the past under wedlock policy.
After years of service, they are in the same grade they were at the time of their first appointment on deputation but for the sake of their families and children they keep doing work despite the fact many of their junior teachers have been promoted to next scales.
While talking to Pakistan Observer, an Area Education Office (AEO) confirmed the federal government is considering one-time blanket absorption for the teachers on deputation and the Senate Standing Committee too has sought a list of all the ‘deputationists’ working in Islamabad’s schools and colleges.
A number of female teachers on deputation expressed their joy at the step being taken by the government and thanked Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood, MNA Asad Umar and Prime Minister Imran Khan for taking up their case for their kind consideration.
“Our families are well settled here in Islamabad; our kids are studying at local schools and there is a government’s policy too, of allocating a certain number of seats for teachers from other provinces. Such decision will give us immense relief and confidence,” said a female teacher on deputation.
An official of the FDE told this correspondent that there was a summary approved by the then Prime Minister (Yousuf Raza Gilani) back in 2013 in favour of deputation teachers who are working under wedlock policy in the federal educational institutions.
