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Sindh Education Department has launched an investigation after a primary school teacher in Pakistan was granted maternity leave three times in a single year. Corruption and negligence in the Government education sector are widespread in Sindh with many cases of ghost schools and teachers. A video revealed a state primary school in Mirpurkhas only existed on paper. Salaries were disbursed monthly to fictitious faculty, while the school grounds housed animals.

The Sindh education department dismissed eight teachers at different public schools over their absence from their jobs for the past two years. Although they had been living abroad, they kept drawing salaries from their institutions. The education officers are trying to identify more ghost teachers to improve the education system in Sindh.

The education department has released a list of ghost employees at different schools in the region, following which 79 employees will be suspended. These employees include 8 high school teachers, 8 junior schoolteachers, 10 primary school teachers, 4 Sindhi language teachers and 2 headmasters, as well as non-teaching staff. The Sindh Education Department said that all the employees belonging to schools in Karachi have been absent from school for 8 months but were receiving a salary.

Government schools in the Manghopir area of Karachi are in dilapidated condition. School buildings are deprived of water, electricity, and other basic amenities. In the Government Boys Primary School Haji Mehmood Goth in Sarmastani Mohalla there is only one teacher for 137 children. Despite the biometric system, the rest of the teachers have been receiving their salaries at home for the last two years.

In 2018 an audit conducted to review the Basic Education Community Schools program authorized by the Public Accounts Committee revealed over 2000 ghost schools on paper but no teacher on record. Several years have passed and new cases have been reported. Yet criminals continue to embezzle money to bribe government officials to allow fake teachers to keep fake jobs and usurp salaries of honest teachers and deserving students.

287,000 ghost students were found registered in schools under the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) programme. Schools, government officials, and NGOs are suspected to be involved in the preparation of a fake record Rs1.1 billion per year. A special audit of the funds received by PEF is being conducted and strict measures will be taken against the officers involved in this corruption case.

The Secretary Secondary Education urged that all the District Education Officers identify all the ghost teachers in their district. He directed them to submit details of all the closed and inactive schools. They should also report completion of the Public Sector Development Programme schemes to the respective construction firms only after complete satisfaction and visits to the schools. Those neglecting their duties will be held responsible.

Sindh Anti-Corruption Establishment has found corruption and misuse of authority in Sindh Education Department district Jacobabad involving illegal inducting of hundreds of fake teachers, getting illegal financial benefits in the name of fake employees’ retirement, pension and death claims from department and life insurance company. The investigation continues after the fraud of millions of rupees has been reported, as well as the illegal role and abuse of authority from officers of the Education and Finance Departments.

Ghost teachers and ghost schools are a burden on the education system in rural areas of Balochistan and the government needs to take concrete steps to repair the damage that is caused to its children and their future. Most public schools lack basic facilities like boundary walls, chairs, toilets, clean drinking water, electricity, and even teachers, not to mention the absence of study material like course-books and other infrastructural needs. Authorities continue to pay teachers despite their wilful absence and a great number of them are hired based on political affiliation rather than their qualification and educational achievements.

Three more cases of unlawful appointments in the Rawalpindi education department have been unearthed. According to sources in the education department, three fake women teachers have been hired for a high school for boys. The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) is already investigating the appointment of 50 fake teachers in the education department in Kallar Syedan. The Executive District Officer has launched an inquiry into the bogus appointments, an official in the education department on condition of anonymity said.