Denial of promotion to many teachers feared

Islamabad

Many teachers of the federal capital will not be able to get promotion due to retirement if the Central Selection Committee (CSB) and Departmental Selection Board (DSB) don't meet this month.

Among them is Assistant Professor Mussarat Sikandar of the Islamabad Model Postgraduate College F-7/2, who is going to retire on Aug 31 after serving the department of education for more than 30 long years.

And if the DSB meeting doesn't take place before August 31, she would lose the chance of promotion.

According to sources, nine posts of associate professors (BPS-19) have been lying vacant for the last one year.

Also, if the CSB doesn't meet before December 2016, another teacher, Professor Khurshid Ahmad Shakoori will be denied the chance of promotion from BPS-19 to BPS-20.

Currently, three posts of Professors (BPS-20) are lying vacant in Islamabad Model Colleges (ex-FG Colleges).

Sources said in the past, many teachers retired before getting the due promotion. The teachers insisted the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) and Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) weren't bothered about their promotion.

FGCTA President Prof Manzar Zafar Kazmi and General Secretary Prof Muhammad Akram have demanded that the CADD arrange for a meeting for DSB so that college teacher Prof. Musarat Sikandar could be given the chance to promotion.

They said Prof. Firdous Umer of F-7/2 college retired in October 2015, and although she was promoted to BPS-19 by the board but could not avail the promotion because the notification was issued four days after her retirement. According to them, she made representation to CADD but the file was lost in the CADD.

Prof Firdous Umer has been suffering from cancer for few years and has gone through multiple surgeries and presently she is admitted in Shaukat Khanum Hospital but no officer concerned either in CADD or FDE has ever paid attention to her case.

The teachers said such cold attitude of the officers in FDE and CADD had disheartened the teaching community that requested Maryam Nawaz to take interest into such measure as it would bolster the confidence and morale of the teaching community. They said reforms and improvements in education would be materialised if the teachers who were agent of change were given the required attention.

The teachers said the education department of federal capital stands ignored amidst Prime Minister’s educational reform programme in the capital because the teacher who was a catalyst of change for the national growth has not been on the radar of the focus of the government. They said three ex-FG colleges were being run by professors in BPS-19 because of non-availability of officers in BS 20.

According to them, if these three professors after serving the education department for more than 30 long years of their life it will send a discouraging message to the community that already feels neglected and unacknowledged. And if these three officers are promoted it will open an opportunity of promotion to the officers from the lower grades. It will not only inspire the confidence and motivation in the teaching community but also create more employment.

The teachers said if the government made some arrangement for the promotion of teachers conditioned to the availability of vacant posts, it would boost confidence and morale of the teaching community.

They said high morale and confidence of the teaching community would surely play a key role in the uplift of educational institutions of the capital.