200 teachers suspended on charges of absenteeism

NAWABSHAH: Action against “ghost teachers” has been expedited following the announcement of an education emergency in the province by Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah. 

In this regard a team of the Chief Monitoring Officer raided different schools of the district and suspended about two hundred male and female teachers who had not been on duty at the time of the raids. 

Chief Monitoring Officer Abdullah Dahri raided Government Primary School Syed Khair Shah, Fatehpur, Haberi, PS Nabi Bux and scores of other schools.   On the other hand the suspended “ghost teachers” told the media that they left the school just a short while before the team raided the school and suspended them. 

The suspended teachers leveled the allegation that the Chief Monitoring Officer did not visit “those schools where male and female teachers of choice have been posted and supported by political parties and officers”. 

They said that a majority of those teachers were working abroad or in other provinces of Pakistan.  They also alleged that the biometric system did not cover the absentee teachers due to which the department had no record of their absence. 

Meanwhile, sources close to “such influential teachers” said that a large number of such teachers either attended the meetings of district officials as political or social leaders or as journalists, and the district education officials had no power to take action against them. 

When contacted an official of the education department disclosed that the teachers who had been suspended on the order of the court were still getting their salaries.  However, a letter was sent to the high-ups of the education department about such teachers.