MULTAN, Dec 12: Absence of teachers and limited resources have led 92 middle and primary schools for girls to closure.

Resultantly, around 2,600 students in these institutions will be deprived of education.

Some 55 schools (1,600 students) in Jalalpur Pirwala tehsil, 23 schools (600 students) in Multan tehsil and 13 schools (400 students) in Shujaabad tehsil have stopped functioning.

The prime reason for the closure of these schools is the non-availability of teachers. At least 180 sanctioned posts of teachers have been lying vacant in the schools for quite sometimes now.

Inaccessibility of these institutions to most of the female students is yet another reason for their closure. A number of schools have been set-up in areas where there is no transportation. Six schools have been closed for this particular reason.

When contacted, Executive District Officer (education) Hameed Raza Siddiqui told this correspondent that the teachers appointed in the schools in remote areas got themselves transferred as they were not willing to go there. He said the government had been proposed to fill vacant posts with local candidates and to impose a ban on their transfer. The teachers should be given special allowances to encourage them working in remote areas, he suggested.

He maintained the government had also been proposed to make local community responsible for the provision of accommodation to staff posted at these areas.

Some of the schools had been set-up in the areas where literacy ratio was less than five per cent, he said. These schools had been established by the local landlords for political expediency and there was no actual need for those, he added.

Answering a question, the EDO claimed he had not been informed that teachers in the six schools had been drawing salaries without serving.—Nouman