Seniority principle ignored in principals’ appointment

Islamabad: The out-of-turn appointment of junior associate professors as principals to Islamabad’s model colleges has stirred unrest among the teaching community, and some of its members intend to take the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) to the court over the irregularity.

Ignoring the associate professors in the senior list’s Serial No 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7, the FDE, the regulator for government educational institutions in the capital, recently made Muhammad Ihsanul Haq from Serial No 4 and Iftikhar M Shahbaz from Serial No 8 the principals of IMCB F-8/4 and IMCB I-8/3 respectively, teachers told ‘The News’.

They insisted that some officers were misleading the newly-appointed FDE director general on the matters of colleges to the misery of both teaching and nonteaching staff.

“These appointments [of junior associate professors] were made on the recommendation of the director (model colleges), whose own appointment is controversial. He is a regular associate professor at the IMCB F-8/4 but has been given multiple portfolios like director (model colleges) and area education officer in breach of merit,” a senior teacher of the Islamabad College for Boys claimed.

He said the recent out-of-turn appointments to model colleges had turned out to be a big let-down for staff members, especially those deserving to be posted as principals.

“Seniority used to be the norm for the appointment of principals but that doesn’t appear to be the case anymore. Posting as principals is an undue favour given to juniors. Such a conduct on part of the FDE has stressed out and demoralised senior teachers with their students and the entire system, too, taking its brunt,” he said.

Another college teacher said the directors were supposed to brief the director general on the relevant matters honestly but that wasn’t the case at least in the recent appointment of principles.

He said flouting the seniority principle for appointments was a disservice to the entire education system, so the director general, who was new to the directorate, should take corrective measures without delay.

An official of the FDE told ‘The News’ on condition of anonymity that if the principle was anything to go by, the top administrative post of the city’s largest model college should go to the senior most member of the teaching community, while the other colleges should have principals in light of the stature and seniority of staff members.

He, however, said the directorate didn’t follow that principle as Asad Faiz, an associate professor at Serial No 1 of the seniority list, was made the principal of a small college, IMCB F-10/3.

The teachers demanded the FDE DG immediately cancel all out-of-turn appointments to colleges and make senior teachers principals.

FDE director (model colleges) Aftab Tariq didn’t take this correspondent’s repeated calls on his cell phone.