CHITRAL, Dec 08: People of Laspur valley in upper Chitral are sick with the absentee teachers of government schools and want the government to punish them for not attending their duties and still drawing salaries.
Former councillor Haider Ali and locals told Dawn that for the past 18 months the government girls’ primary school of Sore Laspur had been locked but its staff continued to draw salaries.
The situation was not much different in six other government schools in the valley. These schools were either understaffed or the teachers were skipping duties, they said.
“It is a joke that just two teachers, one a drill master, have been managing eight classes comprising 120 students in the middle school at Balim,” one resident which was a joke with the students.
The locals said they had made repeated complaints to the education department about the shortage of staff in the schools, but to no avail. They said that a high school and girls’ primary school in Harchin and middle school Gasht were also facing problem of staff shortage.
They alleged that over 30 absenting teachers of the area were drawing salaries in connivance with the department officials. They have urged the government to take notice of the situation and ensure presence of teachers in all the schools.
EMBRACED ISLAM: A Christian man and woman converted to Islam shortly before their marriage in Drosh town here on Tuesday. Qari Jamal Abdul Nasir told Dawn that Shahbaz Masih and Huma Masih belonged to Sialkot city and now they had chosen there new names as Shahbaz Hayat and Huma Hayat respectively.
He said that local people present on the occasion offered gifts to the couple.The News