Teachers serving at educational institutions of the federal capital have demanded of the authorities concerned to address the issues being faced by the federal government colleges including shortage of staff, lack of funds and infrastructure.
According to an official source, the projects of five federal government colleges are still incomplete for the last many years. The five F.G Colleges have been functioning without teaching and non-teaching staff, budgetary allocations and infrastructure since their inception.
While the system is running on adhoc basis by borrowing teaching and non-teaching staff from sister colleges of Islamabad. The Islamabad Model College for Girls (IMCG) I-8/3 project was approved in August 2004 to provide degree level education to the students living in areas like I-8, I-9, I-10, Margalla Town, Rawal Town, Shehzad Town.
The college was started in 2009 without getting regular staff and budget from the Finance Division. Similarly, IMCG I-14/3 project was approved in 2004.Under the plans, the college building was to be put up within 36 months but it took seven years to complete the building.
Now the college is running without regular staff and budget. Both the projects are incomplete despite the creation of posts of staff by the Finance division last year. Finance division has created posts of staff for both IMCG I-8/3 and I-14/3 last year but the colleges could not get the required budget in the fiscal year 2021-22 because the concerned department could not create budget IDs for these colleges.
If budget IDs are not created immediately and demand for budget is not sent to the Finance Division, these colleges will again be deprived of the regular budget of 2022-23.
The Planning commission approved and recommended 91 posts of teaching and nonteaching staff for IMCG Humak but posts have not been created by the Finance Division so far because the file of the project is required study of MS wing of Establishment Division.
The cases of creation of posts of teachers of IMCB Sihala and IMCG Bhara Kahu were presented in the meeting of the austerity committee of the Finance division in 2019. The college got around 55 percent posts of staff. It was decided in the meeting that the remaining posts were allocated/created in the next fiscal year (2019-20) but FDE did not put up the case to the Finance Division for the remaining posts and budget.
A professor at Islamabad Model Postgraduate College H-8 on the condition of anonymity said, ?he casual and indifferent attitude of the administration of federal education setup has left many projects of education incomplete. There are multiple examples of projects that have not been completed and are still awaited. Cases are not pursued by the concerned authorities effectively and sustainably and ultimately students and teachers bear the brunt of this delay.
When contacted, Dr Rahima Rahman, the president of Federal Government College Teachers Association (FGCTA) said, among all other issues these colleges are facing, the major issue of non-creation of posts of teachers.
Shortage of teachers is a matter of serious concern because no student can learn without teachers. Principals of these colleges do not find any way out to address the situation effectively.
She urged the higher authorities to come forward and direct the concerned officials to complete the unfinished projects of Federal Government Colleges.
Professor Tasneem Akhter Mir , Vice President of FGCTA said, having no regular teachers to teach different classes, many colleges are compelled to hire daily wage teachers; consequently the academic work is suffering badly. The existing staff of colleges is overburdened due shortage of teachers and colleges cannot not start new disciplines.
