ISLAMABAD: In order to ease the burden of admissions at some overcrowded Islamabad Model Colleges and schools, the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) merged four Federal Government (FG) Schools with them in Friday, according to Director Model Colleges Dr Tariq Masood.

“After demands were made by parents and students, four FG schools were placed under the model setup,” Dr Masood told Dawn.

He said that Junior Model FG School in G-6/4 was merged with Islamabad Model College for Boys (IMCB) G-6, Junior Model School F-6/3 was given to IMCG F-6, Junior Model I-9/1 was handed over to IMCB I-10 and Junior Model School I-10 was placed under the administrative control of IMCG I-10.

The administrations of some of the model colleges, especially IMCG F-6 which has over 6,000 students and IMCB G-6 which caters to 8,000 students, were being pressured by parents who were trying to get their children into these government run schools.

Students will remain in respective schools while teachers will have choice of teaching at FG or model institutions

However, the overcrowded model colleges could not enrol more students which is why FDE and the management of the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) merged four FG schools with model schools so that more students can be enrolled, according to Dr Masood.

When asked about the teaching staff and the already enrolled students at the schools which were merged, the director model colleges said that the already enrolled students will continue to study in the respective schools while the teachers will be given a choice of where to teach.

“From the beginning, the minimum qualification for teaching at a model school is BA and a B.Ed while teachers used to be appointed after an FA and CT in the FG setup. We will welcome teachers from the four schools who are qualified,” the director said.

On the other hand, teachers from FG schools have criticised the merger of their schools. They said that instead of merging them, FG schools should be provided with better facilities in order for them to compete with model institutions.

Two education systems run side by side in the federal capital, the first of which are the Model colleges/schools and the other being the FG system.

Some 20 educational institutions are working under the model college system and 382 schools are being run under the FG system.

Model institutions have remained the first choice for parents on account of better facilities including transport facilities, trained teachers and better budgets.

However, according to a shortage of buildings and staff, model institutions could not accommodate all students.

On the other hand, FG schools have been the more neglected schools in comparison to model institutions and are facing many problems including a shortage of trained, graduated teachers, furniture and transport facilities.

During the PPP government, the then Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani changed the nomenclature of all FG schools and gave the 422 FDE-run institutions one name: that of model institutions.

This government, however, did not make efforts to provide FG schools with the required facilities in order to bring them at par with model institutions.

So, on paper, all institutions are model institutions, but in reality they are part of either of the two systems.

However, the incumbent government has renovated 22 schools and are planning to do the same for the remaining under the prime minister’s education reforms.

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2016