ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary panel, Friday, while showing serious anger over not regularising teachers working on daily wages for the past 14 years in the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) has said that it was a criminal act and a severe violation of human rights.
The meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Federal Education and Professional Training held here under the chairmanship of Senator Irfan Siddiqui also expressed displeasure over the absence of the minister and the secretary of the Ministry of Federal Education and Director General (DG) FDE.
Regarding the appointment and posting of junior lady teachers at Islamabad Model Colleges, one of the affectees apprised the committee that they were appointed on daily wages and after 10 to 14 years of service instead of regularising the service, the FDE decided that the destiny of employees from BPS-1 to 15 will be decided by the Cabinet and referred the cases of employees from BS-16 and above to the Federal Public Service Commission.
She further added that instead of regularising the daily wages teachers, the government has recently announced 525 posts in different grades. Senator Siddiqui expressed displeasure over the absence of DG FDE and observed that regularisation is the basic right of these teachers, who have been in service for 10 to 15 years.
The chairman committee termed this act of the FDE as criminal and advised the affectees to provide all the relevant documents to the committee and directed the ministry to come up with a definite answer to this pertinent issue in the next meeting.
The chairman committee directed that the Secretary and the relevant minister must ensure their presence at the next meeting of the committee.
While discussing the point of public importance raised by Senator Bahram and Khan Tangi relating to the delay in examination faced by students of law at Bahauddin Zakariya University the panel questioned why the university did not conduct the examination of law students, despite clear recommendations by the committee in its previous meeting.
Responding to the query, Mansoor Akbar Kundi, VC of Bahauddin Zakariya University, said that the Supreme Court in its last hearing has restricted the university from conducting the examination. However, Senator Irfan Siddiqui maintained that there is nothing of this sort mentioned in the Supreme Court’s 25th November order and the committee recommended the university conduct the examination of law students within a week and report back to the committee.
Furthermore, the senate committee deliberated on the bill titled, “The Right to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill, 2022”. Senator Fawzia Arshad, the mover of the bill stated that the bill aimed at making the “Computer Science” subject compulsory for one to 12 standard. Officials of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) apprised the committee that the subject “Computer Science” is already been made mandatory by the government and is also incorporated into the national curriculum.
Senator Siddiqui opined that there is no harm in passing the bill and it will provide further strength to the HEC in enhancing the scope of computer science in the national curriculum. The committee deferred the deliberations on the bill till the next meeting.
Moreover, the committee also discussed the bill titled, “The Al-Ala University Bill, 2022” moved by Senator Sarfraz Bugti. Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, chairman HEC informed the committee that no individual has submitted any feasibility report to the HEC for the establishment of the said university which is considered to be standard practice. The committee directed the representatives of the university to complete all the procedural requirements with the HEC and deferred the deliberation till the next meeting.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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