All FDE schools to get heads from surplus staff in other institutions.

Byline: Kashif Abbasi

ISLAMABAD -- After a long delay, the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) has decided to provide heads to all educational institutions by shifting the surplus staff from different schools.

Currently, there are 157 schools and colleges without the designated post of principal. The FDE has sent a summary to the Ministry of Education for a final approval.

Officials said there were 157 schools and colleges with no designated heads (principals and vice principals) while 65 institutions had 177 head teachers against the required strength of 83.

'There are anomalies which are affecting performance of our schools,' said an official.

'A comparative assessment indicates that there are schools/colleges where more than one post of head teacher and vice head have been parked at the cost of the institutions, especially in the rural area where no formal post of institutional head exists,' read the summary of the FDE.

It said the schools in such a case were being run by senior-most teachers with little or no administrative experience.

157 schools and colleges in capital are without designated heads while 65 others have 177 head teachers against required strength of 83

'The presence of more than the required posts of head teacher is against the basic principles of organisational management. It has counterproductively led to administrative anomalies such as lack of proper division of labour and weak chain of command.'

These positions are mostly located in schools and colleges of urban areas, therefore, institutions in the rural areas have gradually degenerated in their effectiveness of service delivery and serving public good.

The summary said there were 65 institutions where more than the required sanctioned posts of head teachers and vice heads were parked leaving 94 posts surplus, which should be shifted to institutions where no sanctioned post of head is available.

'The detailed stock of the stated situation was taken in a meeting chaired by DG FDE and attended by all area education officers and other stakeholders.

'It was agreed that as a general principle, FDE shall maintain the following distribution of head teachers relative to the corresponding levels of institution,' the summary said, adding it was decided that the higher secondary schools (I-XII) or VI-XII would be given one post of...