PESHAWAR, Aug 13: The Islamia Collegiate School, a constituent of the Peshawar University, has been functioning without a full-time principal for the last six months. “The principal’s post is vacant since February. The Islamia Collegiate School is looked after by the principal of the Islamia College, but he is too busy to supervise the school’s affairs,” said sources in the office of the vice-chancellor.

Five branches of the school, set up in 1913, have 150 teachers for about 3,500 students from KG to 10th class.

About 50 teachers are working on contracts from five to 15 years, despite fulfilling the criteria for regular employment.

“The contract teachers get Rs5,000 per month. How could they be expected to work with devotion?” asked an official.

The school’s last principal retired on July 31, 2006, but he was given an extension until January 31.

The university solicited applications for the position of principal through a newspaper advertisement in November 2006.

The vice-chancellor has the discretion to appoint one of the three most senior teachers of the ICS as principal for three years. But, the post was advertised with a view to selecting the best available candidate for the post even if he is not a teacher of the school.

Several candidates applied for the post, but interviews are yet to be conducted. “In the absence of a regular principal, there is lack of management at the school,” the sources said.

They said the school spent Rs3 million on teachers’ salary and support staff per month. It collected about Rs2 million from students’ fee every year.

Sources said that 2,000 students studied at the school free of cost under the quota for employees’ sons.

Some of the school’s senior teachers had submitted a petition in a court requesting to term the university’s advertisement for the post of principal illegal and direct the administration to fill it on the basis of rotational appointment.

The petitioners said the university syndicate and the senate had approved a law in 2002 according to which senior-most teachers could be appointed a principal on rotation.

The University Model School, another constituent of the university, had already set the precedent by appointing a senior teacher as a principal according to the rotation process.

University Registrar Shakil Ahmad told Dawn that the matter was sub judice. “The syndicate has already debated the issue in its last meeting, minutes of which will be released soon,” he said.

The sources said the school had a two-thirds share in the Board of Trustees of the Islamia College that was spent on its maintenance, but due to non availability of the services of a regular principal, the school has been unable to get its due share.

Misuse of school’s vehicles is another problem. Sources said the college had the services of teachers working in BPS-19, but delaying tactics by the administration had jeopardised appointment of a regular principal.

The institution’s reputation can be gauged from the fact that most of its 243 students appearing in the matriculation examination this year had passed in A-one grade.

The standard, sources feared, could decline next year, if the administration did not appoint a senior teacher as principal.

The teachers said the appointment be made from within the school’s faculty, because it would take years for an outsider to get acquainted with the school’s affairs and rules.