ISLAMABAD: Only for 525 vacancies in class four category (grade 1 and II), in various schools and colleges of Islamabad as many as 47,000 candidates applied.

The Federal Directorate of E ducation (FDE), which supervises 430 schools and colleges of Islamabad, had advertised 525 posts of low grade employees in grade I and II such as naib qasids, guards, lab attendants, library attendants, sanitation worl(ers and so on.

Sources in FDE said that the directorate received 47,000 applications, adding that out of the total, around 23,000 have been declared eligible forinterviews. Currently, five interview panels, (comprising of officials of FDE and the education ministry) have been conducting interviews of candidates.

When asl(ed about rejection of around 24,000 applications, an official said that actually, these posts are reserved for domicile holders of Islamabad and thousands of candidates with domiciles of other cities also applied, similarly, he said that there were also a large number of over-age cases.

`We have 23,000 shortlisted candidates and all appointments will be made on merit,` the official said and added that there were also over 400 daily wage employees, who had already been worl(ing in various schools and colleges of Islamabad and out of them, those who applied against the said posts, will be given preference.

It is relevant to note here that last year, FDE recruited hundreds of new teachers through a government-owned testing service. Now, vacant posts of lower graders are being filled. The interviews were started on May 25 and will continue till June 1.-Staff Reporter