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The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) arrested three secondary school teachers for their involvement in taking bribes and making fake appointments based on fake degrees in the Punjab Education Department. Some influential political figures have made efforts to obtain the release of arrested teachers, but have failed due to ACE’s investigation into this issue.

Education Department officials in northern Balkh province announced that ghost teachers and other employees appointed based on fraud and forgery would no longer receive pay and other privileges. 14 925 teachers and workers have been covered since the introduction of the biometric system, and from now on salaries will be paid upon completing legal procedures.

Dagang Net Technologies Sdn Bhd has signed a memorandum of agreement with four universities in Indonesia to implement Dagang Net eScroll, a blockchain-powered web application for employers, graduates, universities and training providers to authenticate academic and training certificates. This application provides a unique signature and time-stamped certificate that can eliminate forgery, unlike traditional paper-based documents.

The elementary and secondary education department has terminated the services of 104 teachers and other employees in the merged tribal districts for securing jobs on fake degrees or absenting themselves from duty for a long time during the last two decades. The department of education will examine the academic degrees and certificates of all employees in tribal districts.

Media reports indicate that in various parts of the country officers claim they can obtain degrees from recognized universities for students without attending courses or taking exams. In response to this, the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry has ordered University Grants Commission (UGC) to constitute a high-level committee to enquire into the allegations regarding the sale of fake degrees by certain universities.

The private education institution Kings International Business School registration was cancelled for issuing diplomas without ensuring that students had received proper instruction and assessment. Two former managers were sentenced to jail after failing to comply with the Council for Private Education's directive to refund or place out students, and the provision of 10 false examination scripts and six false attendance lists to the CPE.

16 pilots and 65 crew members of the national airline have been suspended by the Pakistan authorities for possessing fake degrees. On 29 December, a chairman of the Senate Committee, strongly opposed the pilots and cabin crew’s dismissal and suggested that the salaries of the culprits be reduced instead of firing them. The issue of who is responsible has become politicized. It seems that many pilots and cabin crews with fake academic degrees obtained their degrees through political connections. The fake degrees issue has been in the limelight in the country since 2010, as many parliamentarians faked their academic qualifications to be eligible to contest elections when a new rule made it compulsory for candidates to possess a bachelor degree.

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.