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Ghost teachers?
March 12, (The News) Like 'ghost' schools, Pakistan seems to have its fair share of 'ghost' teachers.
Unfortunately, this happens mostly in those areas of the country where the need
for education is greatest, i.e. in rural areas and in the poorer sections of
cities and towns. In the former case, individuals on schools' payrolls as
teachers continue to receive salaries without even visiting their schools. In
the latter, payrolls list fictitious staff, from the headmaster right down to
the peon, and are the only proof that a school exists - though often without
students or even a proper building. But the belated surprise visit by a
monitoring committee of the Sindh chief minister to a government school in
Khairpur could have been as good an example as any of "ghost monitors" if it
hadn't been formed only recently. When members of the committee visited the main
government primary school in a city neighbourhood this week, two teachers were
absent (one of them had not shown up to work since Oct 7 of last year). So the
committee's convenor suspended both, as well as the headmaster, because he
hadn't taken any action against the two absentees. It was either negligence on
the part of the headmaster, or corruption, or both, and must be prosecuted. The
convenor complains that two top education officials of Khairpur hadn't paid a
visit to the school for three whole years.
There are no "ghost
government offices," but at least as far as lack of responsibility and
accountability go, the situation in this particular government primary school
isn't radically different from that prevailing in many government departments.
In such an environment, it is difficult to see how the government's proposed
increase of educational allocation to four per cent of GDP will by itself
improve education. Pakistan's education sector is not just the victim of lack of
finances, the problem lies in ensuring that the money allocated is spent
judiciously and effectively so that any increase in literacy is not confined
only to statistics in government documents.
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| Education News | | Updated: 25 May, 2012 |
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