Anybody in there?: Schools lie about number of students

BESHAM:

The Kohistan District Education Officer (DEO) raided five educational institutes, including government high schools, of Jeejal and Kiyal which only had a handful of students. These schools had claimed the number of pupils enrolled was far greater.

As a result, the DEO froze the salaries of all absent teachers and sought an explanation. The state of education is similar at many institutes in Kohistan.

Government High School Jeejal only had 13 students present at the time of the raid and it was discovered that admission records for class nine and 10 had been faked. Headmaster Nawab Khan was allegedly involved in inflating and fixing the numbers.

Government High School Kiyal’s attendance register showed no teacher had marked their attendance for the month of November. At the time of the raid, no other tutor was present on the premises besides the Islamiat teacher. The school’s furniture was
being used by another private institute.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th,  2015.