The Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) which oversees schools and colleges in the country has noticed incidents of widespread corruption and mismanagement, including hundreds of illegal appointments and out-of-turn promotions and postings.

According to official documents available, the FDE had made 471 non-teaching and 171 teaching appointments in 2009 in violation of regulations. These positions were never advertised and were filled on verbal orders from people in the ministry of education.

Although the matter was discussed by the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Education, its Chairman Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali appeared to be more interested in the verification of lawmakers’ academic qualification than in this issue.

Reliable sources told this correspondent that instead of taking action against the people responsible for the wrongdoing an attempt was being made to hush up the matter.

According to the documents, 130 Matric Trained Teachers (MTT) were inducted by the FDE without advertising the posts and without meeting other requirements.

Unlike the 440 advertised MTT posts for which proper written tests and interviews were held, the 130 posts were filled in the same cadre through walk-in interviews.

Similarly, 41 positions of Trained Under Graduate Teachers (TUGT) were filled in a similar manner; no tests and interviews, but just a formality of walk-in interviews.

Statistics about unauthorised recruitments in the non-teaching cadre show that 471 such positions were filled in complete violation of rules.

In 2009, the FDE inducted two assistants, one head clerk, seven steno-typists, six accountants, 20 UDCs, 160 LDCs, and 276 naib qasids without meeting the standard procedure.

More than a dozen deputy directors of the FDE are working as directors on a temporary basis and enjoying perks and privileges of the positions. Since the FED is being run on an ad-hoc basis, people are getting positions of their liking in an irregular manner.

During a recently-held meeting of the NA Committee on Education, Chairperson of Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) Dr Shaheen Khan, who is looking after FDE as its additional charge, admitted that more recruitments than the advertised positions had been made.

She expressed her inability to tell the committee under whose orders the unlawful appointments had been made. She said that despite her best efforts she could not get access to the relevant official record.

In the committee, most members were in favour of cancellation of all such appointments, but a few others opposed the move, saying that once appointment letters had been issued it would be difficult to undo the process.

Despite best efforts, former Education Minister Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, who is currently looking after the ministry of industries, and incumbent Education Minister Sardar Assef Ahmad Ali were not available for comment. Dawn