CHINIOT: The Chiniot District Education Authority (DEA) has issued notices to 40 head teachers for poor management and poor attendance of teachers and students in their schools.

The notices issued by the district education officer said that schools showed poor performance in the Chief Minister’s Roadmap indicators in December under students attendance, availability of sufficient furniture, completeness of boundary walls and toilets, and teachers presence in schools.

“This shows sheer negligence in performance of duties as head teacher and explanation is sought for reasons of low performance,” the notices said.

DEA Chief Executive Officer Chaudhry Zulfiqar told Dawn that millions were being provided to these schools every year to complete missing facilities like furniture, sufficient toilets, clean drinking water supply and other necessities but these schools failed to properly utilise funds for their basic needs. Moreover, the presence of teachers and students was also below the targets set by the School Education Department in these schools, the CEO added.

Safdar Siraj, president of the Punjab Teachers’ Union, Chiniot chapter, criticised the department for issuing notices to so many head teachers. He said the provision of furniture and infrastructure was the responsibility of district authorities, while students’ presence could not be ensured by teachers who were not to go door to door to fetch the absent children. He demanded withdrawal of notices at the earliest.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2020