KARACHI:
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has provided documents of expatriate school teachers from Shaheed Benazirabad in response to a request from the Sindh School Education and Literacy Department (SELD).
SELD officials told the Express Tribune that the department has initiated action against these absent teachers.
SELD has once again highlighted the existence of over 6,300 ghost teachers and urged Education Minister Sardar Ali Shah to take action against them.
The Director General of the SELD Supervision had sent a summary of the bogus teachers working in the department to the Minister of Education, who in turn forwarded it to the Minister, who wanted to take appropriate action.
The summary states that many teachers are receiving salaries while sitting at home and that some retired staff are also receiving salaries and benefits. The summary recommends that the teachers on duty should be stripped of their ID cards and salaries and legal action should be taken against them.
The problem of ghost teachers is decades old. Many people take jobs to gain political benefits and get free tax money. These teachers, invisible like ghosts, get all the benefits of their job but do nothing. Because they have good connections, the authorities can do nothing against them.
The SELD monitoring department’s summary said that many of these long-term absentees had travelled abroad, prompting the department to take action against long-term absentees. The department reported that it had requested records from the FIA regarding teachers who had travelled abroad against the rules. According to the department, the FIA has provided records regarding absentee teachers from Shaheed Benazirabad who had travelled abroad. Based on the FIA report, action has been initiated against them.
