After ghost schools and ghost teachers, the government of Balochistan has now traced presence of 234,000 ghost students in the province which is already lagging behind other provinces in terms of literacy rate. The ghost students were ‘enrolled’ by officers of education department and teachers to show maximum number of schools and get other monetary benefits, the provincial education secretary, Saboor Kakar, revealed on Monday.He was addressing a gathering organised in connection with monitoring of teachers through modern technology at their schools. Provincial Education Secretary Saboor Kakar revealed on Monday that 900 ghost schools have also been unearthed.There is corruption in almost every sphere of life but it is proverbial in education departments of the four Provinces. This is despite the fact that the sector has educated, qualified and otherwise cream of the society in its ranks, who should be, otherwise, a role model for others. It has, however, been observed that the department is ruled by clerk mafia whose looting and plunder is known to all but no tangible action has so far been taken against it because most of the officers too are beneficiaries. The situation has deteriorated to such an extent that teachers hardly get their full pay and allowances and postings and transfers are done after palm-greasing. Teachers especially lady teachers have become a hostage in the hands of this mafia and there are no signs that the situation is going to improve in the near future. But presence of ghost schools, teachers and now students is alarming and it calls for urgent and drastic surgery in the education sector by the Federal as well as the four Provincial governments besides those of GB and Azad Kashmir. There is a popular slogan in the country ‘zero tolerance against corruption’ but unfortunately health and education sectors as well as police and revenuedepartments that are infested with the menace have been spared by those responsible for holding accountability. It is a pity that all sorts of corrupt practices are going on and only a few weeks back there was a report by the National Bank about unearthing of six hundred thousand ghost pensioners. There are also reports about presence of thousands of fake-degree holders among civil servants. Who will stem the rot?
pk.shafaqna.com
