ISLAMABAD: On the directions of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) on Tuesday transferred five assistant education advisers to the ministry of federal education and professional training.

The education advisers were working at the curriculum wing.

In March this year, the ministry of CADD handed over the curriculum wing to the ministry of education.

However, the transfer of the advisers got delayed. On Tuesday, CADD issued a notification transferring the advisers to the ministry of education.

It may be noted that at the moment CADD, which is responsible for looking after the af fairs of 422 educational institutions in the federal capital, does not have a forum to develop the curriculum.

Last month, CADD brought the issue into the notice of Senate standing committee on cabinet secretariat which recommended that the curriculum wing should be handed back to CADD. However, so far no progress has been made on the directive.

The transferred assistant education advisers were: Javed Saleem, Mohammad Jatoi, Dr Riaz Hussain, Saqib Shahab and research officer Miraj Mohammad Khan.

In the beginning of the current year, CADD through asummary had requested the prime minister to revise his decision of handing over the curriculum wing to the education ministry.

CADD wanted to keep the curriculum wing to perform its statutory functions of developing the curriculum and evaluation procedures, including the approval of syllabus and textbooks for the Islamabad-based educational institutions as envisaged under the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2012.

However, the prime minister rejected the summary and ordered the secretary CADD to fix responsibility for the delay in complying with his order.

CADD officials told Dawn that after education was devolved to the provinces under the 18th Amendment, CADD was established to look after the affairs of the leftover divisions and departments in Islamabad and the curriculum wing was one of the departments. Before this, the wing was part of the defunct education ministry.

The officials said after handing over the wing to the education ministry, CADD was left with no forum to develop the curriculum.

`We will face problems in future as we have no option to develop our curriculum. The only solution is that CADD should establish its own curriculum wing.

Before the passage of the 18th Amendment in 2010, the wing was part of the defunct federal education ministry.

After theamendment,its control was given to CADD.

Despite repeated attempts, CADD spokesman Qaiser Majid Malik could not be contacted for comments. Kashif Abbasi