ISLAMABAD: Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), which supervises over 430 schools and colleges of Islamabad, has been working without a regular director general since 2023.

The overdue delay raises questions about the efficiency of the education ministry and federal government. In the absence of a regular director general, the FDE is being looked after under interim arrangements. For the last many months, the joint secretary of the ministry of federal education has been supervising FDE on an additional charge basis.

“At a time, when Pakistan has shocking over 26 million out-of-school children, school and college education should be the main priority of the government.

The FDE, which deals with Islamabad’s public sector schools and colleges, is being run on an ad-hoc basis since July 2023, and this delay raises big question marks,” said an official of FDE, who requested not to be named.

He said that running the office of DG FDE is a full-time and dedicated job, therefore, it should be filled without any further delay. It is relevant to note here, after considerable delay, in September last year, the education ministry had sent a summary carrying three names of shortlisted candidates to the Prime Minister’s (PM) Office for picking one name for the post of DG FDE.

However, sources said last month, the PM office referred back the summary to the education ministry, stating that why the court case against the appointment of DG was not cleared by the ministry, before sending this summary.

“Due to a court case, the appointment of DG is facing delay, we have been pursuing this case dedicatedly. Hopefully, soon the matter would be resolved,” said an officer of education ministry.

In summary of September, the education ministry had shortlisted three educationists – Assistant Professor of Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, Noreen Ayaz, Adviser of Engineering Development Board, Assistant Professor of PIDE, Dr Shahid Razzaque, and Associate Professor and Dean of Health Services Academy, Dr Tariq Mehmood.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2025