ISLAMABAD: The Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) will be installing observation posts at all educational institutions in the federal capital and trained security guards will be deployed there.

The directorate has also decided to issue two or three arms licences to each institution for weapons to be used by the security guards.

In a letter to the principals of all educational institutions, FDE said that the security situation in the country had worsened and that strict security measures should be adopted by all schools.

Principals have been directed to send a requisition for onwards submission to the commissioner’s office for the issuance of arms licences.

In the letter, FDE Director General (DG)Moinuddin Wani directed the heads of schools to install walkthrough gates, metal detectors and inspection mirrors. He also asked them to deploy armed security guards and report to him if the boundary walls of their schools are less than eight feet high.

The letter directs emergency drills to be conducted regularly and emergency exits, which almost all institutions have, must have a uniformed guard deployed outside it.

The DG told Dawn that a summary has been prepared for the allocation of funds for security measures.

FDE had announced similar security arrangements after the attack on Army Public School and till date they have not been implemented yet.

A number of schools do not even have proper boundary walls and 10 schools don’t have CCTV cameras installed yet.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2016