Peshawar schools probe exposes ghost staff

An inspection report submitted to the Deputy Commissioner has revealed widespread absenteeism among teaching and non-teaching staff, along with the illegal deploy-ment of employees away from their original duty stations at government schools across Peshawar district, prompting au-thorities to order strict action and an immediate overhaul of basic infrastructure.

The findings came to light during a high-level meeting of the District Steering Committee for Education, presided over by Deputy Commissioner Peshawar Captain (retired) Sanaullah Khan at the district headquarters, which was attended by Dis-trict Monitoring Officer Sameera Saba, both male and female District Education Officers, and other key officials from relevant departments.

The session began with the District Monitoring Officer present-ing a comprehensive educational report detailing performance metrics, attendance rates, availability of basic facilities, and in-spection results from various government schools, where it was clearly stated that while some institutions showed satisfactory performance, a significant number were found to have teaching and non-teaching staff marking prolonged absences, and in several cases, employees were discovered deployed at entirely different locations instead of their original postings.

Addressing the gathering, DC Sanaullah Khan declared that the district administration is utilising all available resources to im-prove the education sector and that no negligence or laxity will be tolerated, as he issued immediate directives to tackle multi-ple issues highlighted in the report, including the complete ab-sence of boundary walls, dilapidated and ageing building struc-tures, poor drainage and sewage systems, non-functional solar power systems, lack of electricity supply, deteriorated wash-room conditions, and the acute shortage of other basic ameni-ties.