ISLAMABAD: Minster of State for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Barrister Usman Ibrahim has expressed his resolve to merge evening classes in morning shift in 19 model colleges of the federal capital.

To discuss the issue, the minister of state held a detailed meeting with senior officials of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) on Monday, but it remained inconclusive.

Majority of the participants of the meeting were of the view that untill new buildings were constructed in the available space of the colleges, evening shift students could not be shifted to overcrowded morning classes.

The participants of the meeting include Director General Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) Qaisar Malik, directors colleges and schools.

It is relevant to note here that over 20,000 students are pursuing their education in evening shift in the model colleges.

The meeting, however, decided to gradually transfer the evening class students in the morning shift of those colleges, where the number of students are less.

“All model colleges are overcrowded. We can’t abolish evening shifts till new buildings are constructed,” said Saeedullah Khan, Director Model Colleges.

In a press statement, the minister of state, Usman Ibrahim, said it was not feasible to run two parallel shifts in schools and colleges.

“There are a number of problems in running evening shift like inadequacy of building infrastructure, paucity of funds, shortage of teaching and supporting staff, problem of transportation and problems of odd hours,” he said.

However, the minister said in the first phase evening classes would be abolished in Postgraduate College (H-8) and IMCB H-9 after Eid.

He also said that new classrooms would be built in those model schools/colleges where there is enough space available to accommodate evening class students in the morning shift.

According to the press statement, the minister also said underutilised buildings of some schools/colleges would also be used for evening shift’s students.

In order to overcome shortage of transport facility, the minister directed DG FDE to prepare a PC-I to purchase 100 buses for educational institutions.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014