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The National Accountability Bureau has opened an investigation against the Higher Education Commission(HEC) Chairman for corruption, irregularities, mismanagement and appointment of consultants. Dozens of consultants were hired based on the high salaries of directors, some of whom were not only retired but also fresh graduates. According to University officials, the alleged HEC chairman was bullied for trying to mend a broken system.

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 Provincial Inspection Team (PIT) detected embezzled amount of Rs19.4 million from just 24 Iqra Farogh-e-Taleem Voucher Scheme (IFTVS) schools in Mansehra instead of the 89 schools registered by the KP government. The Provincial Bureau of Statistics (BOS) survey identified 23,071 out of schoolchildren for their enrolment in district Mansehra. However, the PIT inquiry found, “the data collected by BOS was erroneous as per 100% validation by district programme officer only 4,183 students were physically available, whereas the PIT also found a huge variation in the data.”

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.

In order to fight corruption and discourage private schools to operate a cartel, the Supreme Court in Pakistan has not allowed an increase in school fees of more than 5% per year. Many directors of private schools took money from parents for security deposits and admission fees and earned profits on that money. An Auditor General report highlighted how in public schools some teachers received very good salaries, but they were not doing justice to what they receive while teachers in private schools earned far less amount but they perform better.

A recent survey found that more than 6.000 schools across Sindh province are not functioning. The country has a poor record and, in some areas, one of the biggest problems is ensuring teachers’ presence at work. Al Jazeera's Nicole Johnston reports from Sindh Province.

Citizen's Report Cards (CRCs) are participatory surveys that gather user feedback on the quality and performance of public services, to empower citizens. Experts are convinced that  political parties can play a significant role in educating youth. Without a matching improvement in political discourse, the state of education in Pakistan cannot improve substantially.