KARACHI, Jan 13: The decision of the city government’s education department to make computer literacy paper compulsory at first-year level has created resentment among the students of those colleges where either computer labs do not exist or computer teachers are not available.
All those students who were admitted to the first-year classes during the current academic year, were made to pay an extra Rs1,000 by the provincial education department under the head of computer education, despite the fact that the facility for imparting computer education was not available at a number of colleges.
An inquiry into the affairs disclosed that the decision was taken by the officials of the city government’s education department at the dictates of Sindh education department without taking the city Nazim, Naimatullah Khan, into confidence, though all government colleges have come under the administrative control of the city government.
The Nazim summoned an urgent meeting of the concerned officials to know the facts and a probe in this regard showed that the city government’s education department had not only announced that there would be a computer literacy paper of 100 marks for the students of first-year, but had also indulged in some other alleged irregularities such as issuance of orders for purchasing of a number of computers without even taking prior permission from the city Nazim.
Insiders told Dawn that when the Nazim asked the executive district officer (education), that on whose instruction the decision was taken and how orders for purchasing a large number of computers were passed without taking him into confidence, the EDO reportedly expressed his ignorance, saying the decisions might have been taken by the district education officer (colleges).
However, the district education officer (colleges), who was also present at the meeting, disputed the EDO’s assertion, saying that all the decisions were in his (EDO’s) knowledge and in support of his contention produced the relevant file.
After seeing the file, the Nazim ordered a thorough inquiry in this regard, instructing the officials of the education department to furnish him the entire record so that he could take some appropriate decision.
It was the second time that the EDO (education) had taken some important decisions either at his own or on the orders of the provincial education department, although the official is supposed to take all major decisions with the consent of the Nazim, following the transfer of administrative control of the colleges to the city government.
Recently, the EDO (education) had issued around 600 appointment letters to the newly-recruited teachers for the educational institutions of the city government and the Nazim was also kept in the dark in this regard.
The Nazim, who had come to know about the appointments of such a large number of teachers for the city government’s educational institutions after the issuance of appointment letters, had not only raised the issue at the higher level but had also ordered to keep all the appointments in abeyance.