PESHAWAR: The government has changed five secretaries of the elementary and secondary education department in the last one year showing non-serious attitude towards the development of the education sector.

The officials said the frequent change of head had adversely affected the affairs of the department, which dealt with a sector, whose development was prioritised by the ruling PTI.

“Let him (education secretary) work. The government should give him some space to know the issues and problems of the department for necessary action,” a senior bureaucrat told Dawn.

Teachers leader says files stuck in dept, secretary should stay put for two to three years

The bureaucrat said education was such a large department, whose secretary required at least six months to understand issues.

He wondered how the education department would work better if its head was changed five times in a year.

The frequent change of the education department’s head began on Sept 9, 2017, when secretary Dr Shahzad Khan Bangash was transferred. The next day, the then commissioner of Peshawar, Mohammad Fakhar Alam, was given the additional charge of the post.

Mr Alam headed the education department for around four months before the government took the additional charge from him and handed it over to health secretary Abid Majeed on Feb 13, 2018.

The government replaced Abid Majeed with Shahid Zaman as the secretary after four months on June 4, 2018.

Shahid Zaman was also transferred after three months, Sept 1, 2018, to be exact.

Mukhtiar Ahmad replaced him on Sept 28 but he, too, was changed after two months.

He was succeeded by Dr Mohammad Ajmal on Nov 23.

When contacted, adviser to the chief minister on elementary and secondary education Ziaullah Bangash expressed concern about the frequent transfer of the education secretaries.

“I was abroad for a few days and when returned, I was informed about the transfer of the education secretary,” he told Dawn.

The adviser said he immediately contacted chief secretary Naveed Kamran Baloch to learn about the reason for the transfer of Mukhtiar Ahmad within two months of the appointment but the latter had no justification for it.

“I told the chief secretary that I will do nothing but only brief the new secretary about the department and the party’s agenda after every two or three months,” he said sarcastically.

The adviser wondered how his team would work with consistency if its leader was changed time and again.

A former bureaucrat, who served the education department for several years, said the frequent change of the head of the education department showed the government’s non-seriousness towards the education sector.

He said a new secretary of the education department would require some months to ‘take off’.

Chairman of the All Teachers Grand Alliance Samiullah Khalil said file work had literally come to a halt in the education department due to the frequent changes to the top secretary.

“The promotion of around 12, 000 teachers of different cadres have been pending as their promotion cases haven’t been processed properly due to the changes of secretaries,” he said.

Mr Khalil urged the government not to change the education secretary for two to three years.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2018