Journalists or ghost teachers

Get rid of ghost teachers, court tells Sindh government

Karachi: A statement filed by the provincial Secretary Education and Literacy Department recently in the Sindh High Court reveals that 45 ghost teachers of various schools in Sindh have been employed as journalists by various media organisations who did not attend their school but drew their salaries.

The report was filed in reply to a set of identical petitions filed for the development and enforcement of the Child Protection and Management Information System (CPMIS) in the province.

According to the statement, a plan was prepared to increase the number of school-going children. As such certain schools were reopened and teachers appointed. Initiatives were also taken for the upgradation of schools so necessary equipment was also procured. The Secretary of Education, however, contended that the Education Department’s initiatives were often impeded through litigation brought before the courts challenging procurements.

A two-member bench headed by Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M Shaikh observed that he was not impressed with that contention of the secretary and before moving on to other aspects, it was time to discuss matters of enrolment and attendance.

“As to our minds, the foremost considerations are those of ensuring that children who are currently out of the school system are brought into the fold and that the physical attendance of enrolled children is properly ensured, along with the attendance of teachers and administrators,” the bench observed. The bench noted that in the absence of proper measures to ensure the enrolment of students, as well as their attendance and that of teachers alike, the expenditure on equipment and infrastructure would be futile.

The secretary further informed the bench that 1,645 teachers had recently been identified as delinquent or absconders and 1,481 show cause notices had been issued to date and proceedings about them would be finalised by the end of December. He also submitted that proceedings had been initiated against 45 ghost employees, who were shown as teachers and were drawing salaries but were otherwise gainfully employed as journalists.

The bench directed the secretary to pursue the matters to their logical conclusion and continue the process of detection to weed out all such transgressors from the system. On a query posed as to how and why such delinquency was not detected earlier, the secretary of Education failed to give a proper explanation. Even this data came to the fore after the orders were given on petitions concerning out-of-school children.

When asked as to what modern means were being contemplated for recording the attendance of students and teachers and flagging truancy/delinquency, the secretary stated that he and the Chief Secretary were cognizant of such imperatives. He acknowledged that the biometric attendance system was the need of the day and sought time to prepare a proposal for the development of such a system across the public schools along with an integrated information management system for logging attendance and flagging transgressions.

He undertook to place before the court a proper workable proposal on the next date in that regard. The secretary also informed the court that a campaign had already been initiated for creating awareness on the subject of compulsory education and undertook to submit the necessary details of such a campaign as well as its impact along with the further measures to be taken for inducing student enrollment and attendance.

The Director General of Child Protection Authority Sindh also filed a report, about an action plan for strengthening the working of the Authority. He informed the court that integrated helplines were being coordinated through the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority while UNICEF had also started to work with the Authority towards the development of a Child Protection and Management Information System (CPMIS).

According to the DG of the Authority, field testing of the CPMIS was underway and the same would be deployed shortly to work in tandem with the helplines being established and thus strengthen the capacity and effectiveness of the Authority and enable better case tracking and management.

He further apprised the court that an anti-beggary campaign had been started in District South, Karachi from November 1, 2022, in coordination with the police and certain children have already been rescued and shifted to a shelter home in Malir. He also undertook that such a campaign would be continued and extended.

The court directed DG and the secretary to update the court on the next date as to further progress regarding the establishment of helplines and development and deployment of the CPMIS, as well as the ongoing anti-beggary campaign, with relevant documents to be placed on record.

Educationist and Philanthropist Professor Aijaz Qureshi also submitted a working paper under the title “Education Improvement Plan”, which was taken on record while its copy was provided to the Secretary of Education, who sought time to go through and consider the same.