SGPC drafts charter for changing status of Directorate of Education

Our Correspondent

Patiala, July 25

The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) has drafted the charter for the transformation of the status of the Directorate of Education from temporary to a permanent body.

While confirming the development, SGPC chief Kirpal Singh Badungar said the main motive behind transformation of its temporary status was to reduce political interference in education institutions being run under the management of the Sikh body.

Badungar also held a meeting with officials of the directorate at Gurdwara Dukhniwaran Sahib here to review the charter prepared by the committee.

He said: “The report of the committee will be placed before the executive committee of the SGPC, where executive members would pass the agenda to provide it a permanent status, finally.”

He said the status report of the current functioning of the directorate had also been sought and he had also directed the authorities concerned  to improve the quality of education in institutes being run under it.

Earlier, administrative posts of the directorate are directly being selected by the president following the approval by the executive committee of the SGPC in the agenda of education. But, after the change of the status, all appointments of the directorate will be done as per the guidelines set in the constitution which has been drafted by a seven-member committee.

The directorate was formed by the SGPC in 2007 as a temporary board only to raise the standard of education of the institutes. Since its formation, the directorate is operational in Chandigarh in a buiding of ‘Sarai’, named Kalgidhar Niwas. And, recently the SGPC authorities have shifted it to Patiala inside the building of the Panth Ratan Jathedar Gurcharan Singh Tohra Institute of Advanced Studies in Sikhism situated at Bhadargarh town.

Director, Education, Dharminder Singh Ubha; and Secretary, SGPC, Avtar Singh; were among other officials present in the meeting.