SIALKOT, Dec 30: The Government Girls Primary School, Olakh Awan in Sialkot, now virtually turns into a cattle shed, has been lying closed for the last three years due to absence of teachers.

Area notables, including Muhammad Akram Bhatti, Shehzad Fazal, Tahir Sarfraz and Muhammad Afzal Bhatti, informed reporters that all the affected students were forced to take admission into private schools.

They claimed that female teachers appointed in this rural area school had never visited it, but were getting their monthly salaries with the alleged connivance of officials concerned of the education department.

Villagers had tethered their animals in some classrooms and playground as the iron gate of the school had long been disappeared. Fodder also found its place in classrooms. Furniture, doors and windows had been damaged as well, they claimed.

Similar is the situation of the Government Girls Elementary School, Looni, in Bajwat. Also closed for the same reason, its students are compelled to get education in far-off places.

This school falls in electoral constituencies of National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Ameer Husain and Punjab Industries Minister Muhammad Ajmal Cheema.

Sialkot EDO (Education) Dr Saifullah Cheema said that a strict departmental probe had been ordered against teachers of these schools and officials concerned of the education department.