The officials of the education department are afraid of holding inquiry or taking action against such people due to their political affiliations. They said there are only 700 school buildings in the city, where the provincial education department is running a large number of registered government primary and secondary schools. Approximately, 90 percent of them have been closed due to absence of teachers and parents' inclination towards sending their children to private schools for quality education, they added.
Sources disclosed that the education department had appointed more than 44,000 teachers from time to time to run 3,700 primary and secondary schools, but most of them never visited the assigned school once in a lifetime. "Some honest officials of the department had tried to hold inquiry against politically-backed teachers, but they were transferred or suspended from their services," they added.
"The department is paying salaries worth billions of rupees to the teachers of these ghost schools on a regular basis from the provincial exchequer. There are some schools in the city where more than 200 teachers are deputed to run more than one ghost schools in a single building at different shifts."
They said Executive District Officer (EDO) Ibrahim Kumber never visited these closed school and due to this attitude, the situation is getting worse. They suggested that the provincial and local governments should rationalise the strength of teachers and announce fresh appointments in interior Sindh.
Siddique Memon, who had recently assumed the charge of Secretary Education, could not be reached for comments while EDO Ibrahim Kumber refused to issue any statement on the issue.