ISLAMABAD: Due to the negligence of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) the fate of 11 Informational Technology (IT) labs hangs in the balance, and their employees have not been paid for nearly a year.

In 2012, the FDE set up 11 labs to impart IT education to thousands of students from various schools. However, the IT teachers, the lab managers and other staff have not been paid their salaries for the last eight months.

Without being paid, the IT staff has little interest in teaching students.

“It’s a human rights violation, that we have not been paid for the last eight months. How can we concentrate on our jobs in such circumstances,” an IT teacher said.

He said that teachers and other staff members have been trying their best to receive their salaries, but that no one is giving the issue any attention.

“When we approach the FDE, they refer us to the Ministry of Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD). When we contact the ministry they refer us to Ministry of Planning Commission... we are just caught between the three organisations,” a teacher said, on condition of anonymity.

An official from the FDE, who deals with IT education, told Dawn that the FDE forwarded the cases of all the employees working in said labs to the Planning Commission for the regularisation of their services, since the project ended in December 2014 and the employees needed to be regularised accordingly. However, the commission has done little.

Despite repeated attempts Assistant Chief of Planning at the commission, Saifur Rehman, could not be contacted for a response.

According to the FDE official, the directorate hired 24 computer science teachers, 15 lab managers and 50 lab attendants. He said that as per PC-1, after the completion of the two-year project, the FDE was to regularise the services of these employees.

“As per PC-1, we moved the case to the Planning Commission in September 2014, but so far the Planning Commission has failed to decide the matter,” the official said.

A senior official at the FDE, however, said that due to the non-ownership of FDE heads, the issue is ongoing, and the FDE is not pleading the case properly.

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2015

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