ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training on 8 April 2024 decided to delegate financial and administrative powers to college and school heads. The decision was made at a meeting presided over by Secretary Education Mohyuddin Ahmad Wani and attended by principals of model colleges.
`Today, we took several important decisions, including delegating financial and administrative powers to head of institu-tions,` said the secretary education.
Speaking to Dawn, he said this was a longstanding demand of college and school heads as they had to get approval of files from the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE). He said the promotion of teachers and principals had also been linked with their performance.
To a query, Mr Wani said the education ministry will ensure the implementation of all decisions taken in the meeting.
Meanwhile, after the meeting, the ministry of education issued a press release stating that it had initiated `comprehensive reforms in educational institutions today.
It said the meeting aimed at fostering significant improvements in the quality of teaching and learning environments across educational institutions under the FDE. During the meeting, a series of directives were issued to revitalise the educational landscape, ensuring a holistic approach to student development.
In the meeting, a number of directives were issued that included inclusion of FDE officials as co-opted members in the newly-formed School Management Committees (SMCs) and College Management Committees (CMCs).
`The decisions included the delegation of administrative and financial powers from directors to principals/heads of institutions, introduction of mind games such as chess and scrabble to stimulate cognitive development and reward systems for high-performing principals and teachers,` it said.
The meeting also decided that training sessions on financial management and procurement for heads of institutions would be conducted and a dedicated director will be appointed at the FDE to promote sports activities in schools and colleges.
The meeting also decided to establish a complaint redress cell within the FDE to address grievances.
Decisions were also made for integration of educational technology and IT interventions to equip students with relevant skills. Other decisions also included to increase in student enrollment across educational institutions, introduce evening shifts in overcrowded classroom schools along with engagement of teachers through honorarium and to launch summer camps for student skill development in various domains.
It was decided to launch a meal programme for students in 192 institutions to ensure their proper nutrition.
The meeting also discussed initiation of technology parks in five model colleges and introduction of high-impact courses in evening sessions in 16 degree colleges.
The meeting also decided to provide honorarium to 100 teachers and 10 principals equivalent to their one basic pay based on various performance criteria in the next financial year.
The implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based paper marking developed by Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education or Taleemabad (a private firm engaged with the FDE for teacher training) was also discussed in the meeting.
