ISLAMABAD: After a gap of around three years, Federal Directorate of Education on Friday got a regular director general, who took charge of his responsibility.

A notification issued by ministry of education on Friday stated that in pursuance of Federal Public Service Commission’s recommendation “Prime Minister has been pleased to appoint Javed Iqbal Mirza as Director General (BS-21) of Federal Directorate of Education, Islamabad under Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training with immediate effect.”

The FDE is a regulatory body which oversees affairs of over 430 schools and colleges of Islamabad.

Sources in FDE said that the new DG will have to face several challenges including securing required funds in upcoming budget for development projects including missing facilities in schools and construction of new schools.

They said that there are around 1,300 posts of teachers vacant. However, officials said that around 1,000 positions have already been referred to FPSC for recruitments. While around 250 elementary teachers posts are required to be filled.

Similarly, officials said that there is a need of construction of new schools, particularly in rural areas.

Officials said that there is a need to bring improvement in quality of education. “There should be same standards of education in all schools and colleges,” said an official and hoped that Mr Mirza who has 15 years of college teaching experience and 10 years of administration experience will play his role in bringing improvement in Islamabad’s education sector.

“Besides focusing on school and colleges, he will have to play his role in education ministry’s campaign of bringing out of schools children in formal or informal schools,” official said and added that in Islamabad there were around 85,000 out of school children and during outgoing campaign, large number of students had already been enrolled.

Meanwhile, officials of FDE said that ongoing missing facilities project is near completion, but there is a need for new project for remaining schools, which is under consideration and new DG will have to get it approved from appropriate forum for its inclusion in upcoming budget.

The notification issued by education ministry stated that upon appointment, Mr Mirza has assumed charge of the post on Friday. The post of DG FDE fell vacant in July 2023 after removal of the then DG Dr Ikram Ali Malik.

However, finally, the controversy surrounding appointment of DG is settled down with Mr Mirza taking charge on Friday. Last year, ministry of education referred case of appointment of DG to Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) which after tests and interview, recommended his name on March 4 and also wrote a letter to education ministry in this regard.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2026