Official raid: Authorities close down ‘ghost school’

AJK secretary suspends 2 instructors teaching for the last 8 years at a Muzaffarabad school

MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir government on Saturday shut down a ‘ghost school’ in Muzaffarabad which had only five students and two teachers enrolled. The two instructors who had been teaching the five students for the last eight years at the Government Girls Primary School Shahnarah have also been suspended. AJK Secretary Education Raja Abbas Khan closed the school during a surprise visit on Saturday. The team also found that the teachers had shifted the school from Shahnarah to Qazi Mohalla in 2005 without the permission of the education authorities. There are more than 100 schools in AJK which have less than 15 students enrolled, said an official of the education department. Khan said the department would continue its drive against schools which have less than 10 students enrolled.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 23^rd, 2014.