Talks between FDE employees, Ministry of Education fail

Islamabad: The Federal Government Education Action Committee' (FGEAC) has called an emergency meeting of the committee after the failure of talks with the Ministry of Education here on Friday.

The FGEAC will decide future plan of action regarding protest against the government’s decision to place educational institutions of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) under the Municipal Corporation of Islamabad (MCI).

A delegation of the FGEAC headed by the Committee's Chairman, Fazal e Moula, met Minister for Education, Shafqat Mahmood, and then called on Federal Secretary for Education but yielded no result.

The spokesman for the action committee said they were always ready for talks but some people were creating hurdles. "The Education Minister is ready to cooperate with us but some people do not want a solution to the problem,” he said.

Education Minister on his Twitter handle said a delegation of teachers met him and hopefully, the classes would resume on Monday. However, the spokesman for FGEAC maintained “We will not allow anybody to darken future of children of Islamabad,” he said.

The sources said the minister asked the delegation that the Government would listen to the problems of FDE employees but they should call off the strike. The Saturday's meeting of FGEÀC would decide to intensify the movement in addition to the boycott of classes and other government duties.

The FDE teaching and non-teaching staff want the omission of clause 166 from the Islamabad Local Government Ordinance, 2021 which places educational institutions under the MCI. “We will not agree on less than the omission of clause 166 of the ICT Local Government Ordinance, “the spokesman for the FGEAC said.