MANSEHRA: The only higher secondary school for girls in Oghi has the skeleton teaching staff as 31 of a total of 46 teachers’ posts have long been lying vacant.

With 1,500 students from different parts of the tehsil enrolled there, the school has just 15 teachers to take classes.

The school’s higher secondary section, which has 400 students, is being managed by an Islamiat teacher. The rest of the teaching posts are lying vacant.

Also, the posts of two science teachers in the section have long been vacant forcing the administration to offer only the arts education to the students most of whom are interested in science subjects.

“We have no educational environment in our school. We come here and return without getting education,” a student regretted.

She said PTI chairman Imran Khan claimed that his government in the province had taken revolutionary steps for the development of education sector but the acute shortage of teachers was enough to verify his claim.

“Ironically, 14 of the 15 sanctioned posts of teachers are lying vacant in the higher secondary section,” he said. The student said there was no girls’ college in Oghi and therefore, her school catered for the educational needs of local female population but the shortage of teaching staff adversely affected the school’s performance.

When contacted, Khattai village council nazim Ashfaq Shah said he had taken up the matter with the local lawmakers and education department officials many times, but in vain.

He said the people would come onto the streets if the vacancies weren’t filled in one week.

ACTION AGAINST PROFITEERS: The district food department has begun a crackdown on profiteering in Mansehra.

“We have fined a dozen shopkeepers after finding them selling goods at rates higher than those fixed by the price control and review committee for the holy month of Ramazan,” district food controller Iqbal Shah told reporters here on Monday.

Mr Shah said fine was imposed on many shopkeepers for selling substandard goods.

He said the rates in fruit and vegetable markets were found to be stable.

“We have also warned wholesale dealers of fruit and vegetable against profiteering and told them they will be dealt with strictly if they try to make unreasonable profit,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2017