The Sindh Education and Literacy Department (SELD) has identified 126 employees in Karachi who have been receiving salaries without attending to their duties for months.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Department of SELD submitted a report to the Secretary Schools on Monday, revealing that 71 teachers and 55 non-teaching staff stationed in public schools of Karachi have been absent from their duties for months without informing the department and they are receiving their salaries on time.
Taking action on the report, Secretary Schools has sought clarification from those employees in three days.
In case the employees fail to justify their absence, the education department has the right to dismiss them.
Note that the overall education system in Sindh is in perils. A recent study published by Hari Welfare Association (HWA) defined it as “an entangled political economy, in which children and the future of the province, and perhaps of the state, are compromised.”
Last week, Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) had revealed that the SELD, on June 10, 2021, had awarded four contracts worth Rs. 5 billion for the supply of dual desks in public sector schools across the province with rates varying between Rs. 23,985 per desk to Rs. 29,500 per desk. Each desk is available for Rs. 6000 to Rs.8,000 in the market.
According to a study published in September last year, there are nearly 7,000 “ghost schools” – nonfunctioning schools that continue to exist only on paper – in Sindh, many of them in the megacity of Karachi.
