ISLAMABAD: After a long delay, the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) has decided to provide heads to all educational institutions by shifting the surplus staff from different schools.

Currently, there are 157 schools and colleges without the designated post of principal. The FDE has sent a summary to the Ministry of Education for a final approval.

Officials said there were 157 schools and colleges with no designated heads (principals and vice principals) while 65 institutions had 177 head teachers against the required strength of 83.

“There are anomalies which are affecting performance of our schools,” said an official.

“A comparative assessment indicates that there are schools/colleges where more than one post of head teacher and vice head have been parked at the cost of the institutions, especially in the rural area where no formal post of institutional head exists,” read the summary of the FDE.

It said the schools in such a case were being run by senior-most teachers with little or no administrative experience.

157 schools and colleges in capital are without designated heads while 65 others have 177 head teachers against required strength of 83

“The presence of more than the required posts of head teacher is against the basic principles of organisational management. It has counterproductively led to administrative anomalies such as lack of proper division of labour and weak chain of command.”

These positions are mostly located in schools and colleges of urban areas, therefore, institutions in the rural areas have gradually degenerated in their effectiveness of service delivery and serving public good.

The summary said there were 65 institutions where more than the required sanctioned posts of head teachers and vice heads were parked leaving 94 posts surplus, which should be shifted to institutions where no sanctioned post of head is available.

“The detailed stock of the stated situation was taken in a meeting chaired by DG FDE and attended by all area education officers and other stakeholders.

“It was agreed that as a general principle, FDE shall maintain the following distribution of head teachers relative to the corresponding levels of institution,” the summary said, adding it was decided that the higher secondary schools (I-XII) or VI-XII would be given one post of principal in BS-20 or 19 and one post of vice principal in grade 18.

The secondary schools (I-X) will be given two posts of grade 19 and 18 and those from VI to X one post of head teacher in grade 19. Similarly, middle and primary schools will have one post of principal in grade 18.

It was also agreed that priority in shifting the posts shall be given to schools located in rural areas with substantial number of enrolment.

“Besides, the posts of principal BS-19 located in the primary schools are rationalised by substituting these with BS-18 posts in high or higher secondary schools where possible.”

When contacted, Director Schools Saqib Shahab said there had been a heavy concentration of head teachers in the urban areas and, therefore, their rationalisation would ensure quality education in the rural areas besides positively influencing dropouts, retention and completion rates along sustaining the enrolment of out-of-school children.

He said this was one of the series of structural reforms FDE had planned to bring F.G. schools not only at par with model colleges in terms of quality education but also compatible with the private schools.

“The summary has been sent to the ministry for final approval,” he said.

The official said FDE had been making efforts to materialise the vision of education minister Shafqat Mahmood for making Islamabad a role model in education.

He said next on the reform agenda was rationalisation of teaching posts, institutionalising continuous professional development for teachers and heads, real-time monitoring and evaluation, teacher certification, re-shaping the conventional assessment methods of ACRs through developing key performing indicators and provision of primary education through female teaching staff wherever feasible.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2019