January 05, 2009	Monday	Muharram 07, 1430

HYDERABAD, Jan 4: The district coordination officer of Matiari, Baqaullah Unnar, has urged the district management of the education department to reopen all the closed schools in the district within a week, failing which strict action would be taken against the assistant district officer education and supervisor concerned.

He was speaking at a meeting held to find ways of solving education-related problems.

The DCO said that out of the reported 33 closed schools in Matiari district, 26 had been reopened while the seven would be reopened within a week.

He said that the issue of ghost teachers was a major challenge to the education department. The official ordered strict action against ghost teachers and other employees of the education department.

Talking about the problems related to the education department in the district, the DCO said that 956 primary, 40 middle and 34 high schools were functioning in the district but most of them were lacking facilities of electricity, potable water, compound wall, lavatory, furniture, additional classrooms etc.

He said that the government was taking keen interest in raising the literacy rate and the quality of education and under this spirit, the provincial government had allocated Rs100 million for providing facilities at every school of the district. He directed the officers concerned to hold a fresh survey and prepare feasibility report for providing lacking facilities at schools.