ISLAMABAD: At least six colleges in Islamabad have been running through borrowed staff for the last many years as the government is yet to approve sanctioned posts for these institutions.

Moreover, schools are also facing shortage of teachers. The Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) recently requested the government to issue a no-objection certificate (NOC) to recruit 240 schoolteachers in BS-14.

Officials in the FDE told Dawn that Islamabad Model Colleges for Girls (IMCG) G-13/1, Islamabad Model College for Boys G-13/2, IMCG G-14/4, IMCB G-15, IMCB Mera Bagwal and IMCB Pakistan Town were being operated without sanctioned posts. These institutions were made functional in recent years without sanctioned posts and being run through staff from other colleges.

The sources said that the directorate was in touch with the education and other ministries for the approval of PC-4 for creating regular posts for these colleges.

An official said that the delay in approval of PC-4 for approval of sanctioned posts was a matter of concern, adding that FDE took several years to build the colleges and posts should have been sanctioned on time.

“This is a matter of concerns that six colleges started operations a few years ago, but still they don’t have sanctioned posts. They are being run through borrowed staff of other colleges, which are also facing shortage of staff,” said an official.

However, an officer of FDE said that around 1200 new teachers in BS-17 were being recruited through Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC). “The process to appoint 1200 teachers by FPSC is at an advance stage. We have received some batches of new teachers appointed by FPSC,” he said.

“In addition, we have requested the federal government for an NOC for hiring of 240 schoolteachers in BS-14 against vacant sanctioned posts. We have been waiting for the NOC for the last around two months,” he said.

FDE officials said that in addition to 240 posts, hundreds of new posts will also be required next year as under the PM’s reforms packages, 70 new classrooms were being built and their work was near completion. When these classrooms will be made functional, enrollments in schools will see an increase and “therefore, we will need more teachers,” the officer said.

The officials said the federal government had been paying special focus on FDE and during the last three years hundreds of teachers were inducted through competitive process. Through the PM’s reforms package, facelifting work was carried out in 170 schools and colleges with construction of extra classrooms and provisions of new facilities.

Meanwhile, officials said another mega project to provide missing facilities was being planned for the remaining schools and colleges.

“We had planned a new project and referred it to the government a few months ago for securing funding for the fiscal year 2026-27. But it was not approved. We were told that this project will be considered at a later stage. We are exploring options for getting funds for this project this year otherwise in the financial year 2027-28 the government will consider it,” an official of the FDE planning wing said.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2026