ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary panel has directed the Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (PEIRA) to upload list of all registered / unregistered private schools on the website, for awareness of the general public.

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Federal Education, Professional Training, National Heritage and Culture, which met here on Thursday, under the chairmanship of Mian Najeeb Ud Din Awaisi, also directed the Education Ministry to repatriate all the teachers of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) from different ministries and attached departments to resolve the issues of shortage of staff in Islamabad schools and colleges.

The PEIRA chairperson Zia Batool briefed the committee on previous recommendations of the committee regarding PEIRA.

She apprised that the PEIRA announced its interim fee determination policy for implementation in private schools as per orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

While briefing, acting registrar Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (FUUAST) apprised that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) authorities have not yet issued NOC to the newly-constructed university campus for provision of electricity connection.

The committee directed the CDA to bring complete details of conversion of agricultural land into commercial land in the next meeting.

The officials of the Federal Urdu University, requested the committee to direct the concerned departments to waive off the recent rent of the past six months owing to the coronavirus outbreak.

Responding to this, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on the CDA Affairs Ali Nawaz Awan said that the university kept on charging students fees for six months in corona days, and now the administration of the Federal Urdu University wanted the committee to waive off its rent.

The committee members, commenting on the subject, said that the panel could not intervene as it was an internal matter of the university, and it should be resolved by itself.

While discussing the matter of shortage of teachers at the Islamabad Model College for Girls (IMCG-III), the panel was informed that there were 18 teachers for 1,100 students.

The officials said that the institution was built 11 years ago, and still no permanent teacher was appointed there.

Farakh Hamid, secretary, Ministry of Federal Education while briefing the meeting, said that the school principal did not inform the ministry of her arrival in the committee meeting.

The secretary admitted that the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) was facing serious problems.

Responding to the committee members, Farakh said resolution of the FBISE problems would take years.

Briefing the panel, Tariq Buneri, chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) on the structure of the HEC and employees, said that there were 312 vacancies in BPS scale, four vacancies in MP scale, and 65 vacancies in project pay scale in the HEC.

He said most of the positions were below grade 16, which were not particularly required, while the commission needed people who were qualified for research, and experts on other educational matters.

He added that the HEC was to abolish the unnecessary posts.

The HEC chairman said various posts of different cadres were lying vacant but unfortunately the PC-4 of the HEC new building was not complete, so that was why the HEC faced problems.

He added that PC-4 would be completed very soon, hopefully at the end of December, 2020.

The Committee suggested that this agenda item be put on the HEC Implementation Committee for further consideration.

The committee directed the Education Ministry to convene meeting with all the stakeholders including the CDA to resolve the issues regarding land NOC, exemption of rent charges, and access road as its building had already been constructed, and also discuss it in the CDA Board meeting.

The committee was attended by Ali Nawaz Awan, Sadaqat Ali Khan, Umar Aslam Khan, Nafeesa Inayatullah Khan Khattak, Andleeb Abbas, Ghazala Saifi, Tashfeen Safdar, Farrukh Khan, Mussarat Rafiq Mahesar, Dr Shazia Sobia, Aslam Soomro, and Wajiha Akram, Parliamentary Secretary for Federal Education and Professional Training Division besides officials of the Federal Education and Professional Training Division, the FDE, the HEC, the CDA, and the WAPDA.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020

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