FDE under fire for declaring Saturday as weekday

Islamabad : Strange are the ways of the Federal Directorate of Education. While students and teachers are away during the current pandemic-induced campus closures, the regulator for Islamabad's government schools and colleges has forced members of the non-teaching staff to show up at work on Saturdays in addition to weekdays.

Ironically, these employees, including administration workers, lab technicians, gardeners and guards, spend most of that duty period dozing off or chatting away rendering the FDE move totally useless.

After the educational institutions resumed in-person classes on January 18 after prolonged suspension due to a spike in coronavirus incidence, the FDE declared that students would go to schools and colleges on Saturdays like other weekdays to overcome learning losses they suffered during the last year’s COVID-19 wave.

The educational institutions followed the orders until the government closed them again from March 15 for two weeks as part of measures to stem the spread of the virus.

While the students and teachers are availing themselves of the ‘spring break’, members of the administration, gardeners and guards continue to be on duty even on Saturday, which is a weekly off like Sunday for government employees, including FDE’s.

“It is very surprising to see the non-teaching employees of schools and colleges on duty on Saturdays when all other government employees stay away from work. It is a misstep on part of the FDE,” a college clerk told ‘The News’.

He also said most non-teaching employees of educational institutions used official buses but as the transport service was suspended on Saturdays, the employees suffered commuting troubles, especially in the morning.

A college lab assistant wondered if the students were at risk of contracting coronavirus on campus, how staff members could be declared safe at work.

“We, the nonteaching employees, feel really discriminated against. We’re not opposed to coming to work even on Sundays if it is meant to help address the learning losses of students but when the students and teachers are away, forcing us into doing so is unjust and makes no sense,” he said.

A representative of the Federal Government College Teachers Association threw his weight behind that argument and said nonteaching employees of Islamabad’s schools and colleges should be stopped from coming to work over weekends until the campuses formally reopened for in-person classes.