LAHORE: The Punjab School Education Department on Wednesday constituted a five-member search committee for selection of chief executive officers (CEOs) of district education authorities (DEA) in the province.

Earlier, all the CEOs of DEA in the province were holding acting charge for two years of a three-year-tenure post.

According to a notification, a committee was constituted after approval of the chief minister for selection of the CEOs in Punjab. It comprised Shahid Khan as convener and retired Maj Abdul Majeed, Dr Muhammad Yaqub Nasir, Dr Sania Nazir Chaudhry, and School Education Additional Secretary Umtul Qudoos as members.

All CEOs of DEA in Punjab have been holding acting charge for two years

According to the terms of reference and selection criteria for posting of CEOs, applications will be invited by the committee through advertisements in the print media as well as official website of the school education department. The committee can call potential officers for interviews on its own also, but the criteria and the principle of equal opportunity will remain the same. A panel of at least three candidates will be shortlisted for each post, the department will present working papers for CEOs containing data of the potential candidates for consideration by the search committee, the committee will interview shortlisted candidates, the department will issue orders for posting of CEOs on the basis of recommendation of the committee, and the department can appoint any officer as CEO subject to review by the search committee.

The eligibility for posting and inclusion to the panel of shortlisted candidates included officers of BPS-19 (regular) of the school education department, maximum 55 years of age (in cases of exceptional merit, the search committee may consider the candidate with two-years concession in age), having no disciplinary proceedings/inquiry under process or minor/major penalty imposed under PEEDA Act 2006, no punishment under anti-corruption laws/PPC and no adverse remarks in ACRs during last three years.

Punjab Teachers Union (PTU) General Secretary Rana Liaquat welcomed the formation of the search committee to appoint regular CEOs and said that the posts had been filled with acting charge for last two years. He said a regular CEO could monitor all higher secondary, secondary, high, middle and primary schools effectively and address their problems.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2019