52 girls’ schools closed in Karak due to zero enrollment

PESHAWAR: The officials of the Education Department in Karak district kept the provincial government in the dark about the closure of more than 52 state-run girls’ schools in the annual progress report sent to the authorities, sources said here on Sunday.
The sources said the Karak education authorities did not affix some pages to the annual progress report concealing information about the nonfunctional schools in the district.
The sources said the officials of the Education Department prepared an annual progress report for provincial Minister for Education Muhammad Atif Khan in which they deliberately kept the authorities in the dark about the closure of 52 schools in the district.
The sources said the SDEO (female) in Takht-i-Nasrati tehsil Shahnaz Khattak had given free hand to female teachers whether to perform duty or stay at home. This information had not been included in the progress report submitted to provincial officials.
The source said the original progress report contained information about the duty timing of the teachers, attendance and education ratio and closure of the 52 girls’ primary schools, including 20 schools in Shnawa Gudikhel, 10 in Latamber and 22 in Banda Daudshah tehsil. The pages containing this information were removed from the report forwarded to the provincial government.
In the annual report, provincial minister was also informed about the absenteeism by nearly 65 percent female teachers in the schools in Shnawa Gudikhel due to which 85 percent of girl students were forced to quit their education and 15 percent were enrolled in the boys’ schools.
The sources said it was also mentioned in the report that the SDO (female) in Takhti-i-Nasrati was allegedly involved in taking gifts from the teachers in case of shortage in attendance and other official activities. The SDEO (F) Shahnaz Khattak said that there were some problems with the schools in Shnawa Gudikhel area as most had been established in close proximity and there was low or zero enrollment.