All Bhara Kahu Girls College teachers ‘borrowed’

Islamabad

The Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) appears to be unwilling to do away with its approach of adhocism towards schools and colleges it oversees in Islamabad Capital Territory.

Take, for instance, the Islamabad Model College for Girls, Bhara Kahu.

Instead of appointing permanent teaching staff, the directorate has opted for posting on temporary basis teachers of other ICT colleges to this first government college for female population in Bhara Kahu, the capital's biggest rustic locality inhabited by around 0.3 million people.

Having provisionally appointed FG Margalla College for Women F-7/4, Associate Professor Samina Ashraf as principal in May this year, the FDE transferred first two teachers of the Islamabad Model Postgraduate Girls College G-10/4 to the college and then eight of Islamabad Model Postgraduate College for Girls F-7/2, Islamabad Model Postgraduate College for Girls F-7/4 and Islamabad Model Postgraduate College for Girls G-10/4 to the Bhara Kahu college for 'temporary duty'.

Ironically, principals of the already shortstaffed colleges, where the Bhara Kahu college 'borrowed' teachers from, were not taken on board.

Though awaiting formal inauguration, which many believe will take place after Eidul Azha, the college is currently enrolling the first batch of students for intermediate classes.

The FDE's policy of adhocism towards the Bhara Kahu college has not gone well with teachers, who believe the appointment of 'borrowed' teachers to the college will not further cause of education in the locality in any way.

"Adhocism at the college will do more harm than good. Teachers have been posted there first without their consent and second without being offered any special incentives. Such a policy will not serve the very purpose of the college's opening," a teacher told this scribe.

A schoolteacher feared the affairs of the Bhara Kahu college would be no different from the IMCG I-8/3 and IMCB Sihala, which had been struggling to manage things even seven years after formal opening due to the unavailability of regular teaching staff and budgetary allocations.

"It has never been a wise move to transfer teachers from the existing colleges to newly-opened ones to manage things at the latter without arranging for their replacements. Such transfers and postings cost academic activities at the colleges, both where teachers are withdrawn from and where they're posted to, dearly," she said.

The teacher insisted the colleges including F-7/2, Margalla and G-10/4 were acutely short of teachers as many of their teaching staff members had already been posted to the Islamabad Model College for Girls I-8/3 and Islamabad Model College for Girls I-14 on 'temporary duty'.

"Both I-8/3 and I-14 colleges do not have permanent teachers and regular finances because PC-IV of their establishment has been pending approval by the Planning Commission. Ironically, both FDE and CADD have never sincerely pursued the matter of the creation of teacher posts at these colleges," she said.

Another teacher asserted the FDE didn't allow principals of the shortstaffed colleges to hire temporary faculty to the misery of students.

"Dozens of teacher posts at these colleges have long been lying vacant. If the FDE allows principals to hire teachers on temporary basis and that, too, by using the college resources, the problem will ease a great deal," she said.

A teacher working at a college on temporary basis said women faculty members usually struggled to adjust to a workplace away from home due to unavailability of transport and domestic affairs.

"Such transfers stress out women teachers, who have to earn money for family and care for children at the same time. As a result, many quit jobs to their misery as well as their family members," she said.

Another woman teacher, who was posted to the Bhara Kahu college on temporary basis, said she was really worried to think about taking small children to a G-10 school from her Rawalpindi house in the morning, going to college miles away from there thereafter and coming back to pick children in the afternoon.

"All this will surely frustrate me and my kids," she said.

She said only the teachers living in Bhara Kahu or close to it should be posted to the newly-opened girls college.

When contacted, a relevant FDE official, requesting anonymity, said the college could have posts of permanent teachers only after the PC-4 of its establishment was approved.

"Permanent staff members will be appointed to the Bhara Kahu college after the formal creation of their posts," he said.

This scribe tried several time to get comments from the high-ups of FDE and CADD, but got no reply.

The college's establishment was the brainchild of the Prime Minister's Secretariat, which directed the relevant authorities in June 2003 to materialise the idea.

There followed the development of the project's PC-1, which was later approved by the Central Development Working Party in September 2004.

However, the project stuck in a slow lane afterwards due to the red tape for allotment of land and thus, escalating its cost from Rs75 million to Rs250 million over the next years.

However, things were right back on course in August 2010 after the Capital Development Authority allotted over 40 kanals of land along the main Murree Road in Kot Hatial for the project.

The building has 16 classrooms, one auditorium and one laboratory each for physics, chemistry, home economics, biology and computer science, one library and an administration block. It will be expanded under Phase II once the project's revised PC-1 is approved.