Sindh’s massive ghost teacher issue: 6,342 uncovered

KARACHI: A recent investigation uncovered 6,342 ghost teachers within the Sindh Education Department.

The Director General of Monitoring and Evaluation for the School Education and Literacy Department submitted a critical summary to the Sindh Education Secretary. The report exposed that the ghost teachers had been drawing salaries without teaching.

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The investigation uncovered that some retired employees have been improperly continuing to receive pensions and benefits. The summary recommended freezing the identity cards and salaries of the ghost teachers and initiating legal action against them.

The Education Secretary forwarded the report to the Education Minister for further action.

The revelation follows the discovery that many of these absent teachers had also traveled abroad. In response, the Sindh Education Department requested records from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

Sindh’s education system is grappling with several issues. The province’s literacy rate is around 60 per cent, below the national average.

The province’s educational sector has been grappling with systematic flaws for decades now. These include inadequate teaching resources and limited access to quality education in rural areas.

Educational facilities in Sindh are often under-resourced, with frequent shortages of textbooks, teaching materials, and functional classrooms. Teacher attendance is also a major concern, with ghost teachers representing just one side of the problem.

Many teachers have been receiving salaries without fulfilling their duties, resulting in high absenteeism and compromised educational quality.

Administrative inefficiencies exacerbate these issues. Ineffective monitoring and poorly managed payroll systems contribute to the prevalence of ghost teachers. The lack of proper investigation and oversight allows these discrepancies to persist unchecked.

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Disparities in educational access further exacerbate the problem. Rural areas in Sindh are especially impacted, with many schools experiencing shortages of qualified teachers and insufficient infrastructure.

The uneven distribution of resources has intensified educational inequalities between urban and rural regions of the province.