KOHAT, March 1: The NWFP government has failed to fill 542 vacancies of English and science teachers, whereas 57 out of 138 posts of principals, in high and middle schools, are vacant for many years.

Kohat district education committee chairman Dr Matiullah Shah disclosed that nine boys and six girls schools, constructed in different areas during 1995-96, were still without staff and the buildings had become shelters for drug addicts.

He said the lapse had affected the education standard and created administrative problems.

He said that dozens of other schools, sanctioned and constructed on political grounds, were still closed and the government had expressed its inability to bear the expenses of the useless buildings.  

All the watchmen appointed through nepotism, however, were drawing their salaries.

On the other hand, he regretted, in all the middle and   high schools, the furniture was lying unutilized due to a shortage of space in the classrooms.