ISLAMABAD -  - The casual and indifferent attitude of federal education department has caused immense delay of six-year in completion of projects of the four colleges, rendering them to borrow teaching and non-teaching staff from sister colleges to run day-to-day affairs.
The four colleges (three degree colleges and one intermediate college) in Islamabad Capital Territory have been functioning without teaching and non-teaching staff, budget allocations and infrastructure since their inception. The system is running on ad hoc basis by borrowing teaching and non-teaching staff from sister colleges of Islamabad.
The colleges were established under various development projects by the Federal Directorate of Education. While buildings were erected, the officials forgot to create teaching and non-teaching posts to meet human resource demands of the colleges. “Among all other issues, shortage of teachers is a matter of serious concern because no student can learn without teachers,” an official said.
Islamabad Model College for Girls I-8/3 was inaugurated in 2009 by the then minister for Education Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani. The college has been functioning without regular teaching staff. “There is not even a single regular teacher in the college. The principal borrowed 12 teachers, 4 each from Islamabad Model Postgraduate College F-7/4 (Margalla), Islamabad Model Postgraduate College F-7/2 and Islamabad Model Postgraduate College G-10/4 to meet the requirements of the students,” a teacher of IMCG I-8/3 said. “In the beginning of every academic session, the principals of the sister colleges demand their staff back. It’s very difficult to run such a degree college with insufficient staff. Consequently, the college has dropped many important subjects of the students’ interest,” she added.
Likewise, Sihala Degree College was started in 2009 with the ambition to cater to the educational needs of rural population. It is situated at about 30km distance from Zero Point.
Despite government claims that rural education is its top priority, Sihala College has been facing severe shortage of staff affecting its academic activities.
An official of the colleges said that due to having no regular teachers to teach different classes, the academic work has been suffering badly as only 11 borrowed teachers are there to run the Degree College. “Owing to shortage of staff and absence of many disciplines, the poor students of the area are compelled to join H-8 or H-9 colleges for higher studies. The number of students has dropped over the time because of non-availability of teachers,” he added.
This is not less than a joke that Sihala and I-8/3 degree colleges have no budget allocations from the government to meet miscellaneous expenditure.
Principals of these colleges do not find any way out to address the situation effectively.
Islamabad Model College for Girls Humak (formerly known as Fatima Jinnah Degree College for women) started in 2009 has also been facing the similar issues like Sihala and I-8/3 colleges. Creation of posts of teachers in these colleges has been in doldrums for the last 6 years, evoking strong resentment from the residents, especially the students, who have to travel daily to reach colleges at distant places.
Islamabad Model College for Girls I-14 (formerly known as Arfa Karim College) that was commissioned in 2012 has also been facing severe shortage of teachers. Due to shortage of teachers, parents have to send their daughters to main cities for studies, incurring a lot of expenses in terms of tuition fee and travel.
Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Secretary Khalid Hanif when contacted maintained that the PC-4 for the creation of posts was in the making. “Things get delayed because it needs approval of the Planning Commission and then finance division to hire human resource,” he added.
Area residents complain that the government has been showing indifferent attitude towards completing the projects. The residents appealed to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to direct the officials of Finance Division to create the posts of teachers without further delay as the new academic year is going to start in August.