K-P fines 25 district education officers for missing work

The department's monitoring unit drew up a list of absent officials for the government

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government has imposed fines on 25 district education officers (DEO) for repeated absence from work, following a report prepared by the provincial education department’s Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU).

K-P Elementary and Secondary Education Department documents, available with The Express Tribune, show that 25 women DEOs were found absent from their duties in the month of March.

The provincial government launched the education department’s IMU in 2014 to improve attendance and performance of teachers and education administrators in the province.

K-P Education Minister Atif Khan confirmed to The Express Tribune that the government has taken action against district education officers who were absent from their duties.



Khan said the IMU had identified the absent EDOs and then the education department sent the list of officials to Chief Minister Pervez Khattak for approval to take action.

According to Khan, Khattak signed the approval on Wednesday and directed the department to take action and impose fines.

Khan added that male DEOs who have been missing work have also been identified by the IMU and a list of the officials will soon be sent to the CM for approval.

“There is no place in the department for those who do not perform their duties diligently,” he said.

The minister added that the department has hired 40,000 teachers in the past four years to improve education standards in the province and will be hiring 15,000 more this year.

An IMU report released earlier this year showed several teachers had been absent from work for years. The department subsequently recovered Rs2.7 million in fines from these irregular teachers.