QUETTA: The Balochistan government has sacked 65 ‘habitual absentee schoolteachers’ from service with immediate effect.

Officials of the directorate of education of Balochistan said on Mon­day the termination orders of services of the schoolteachers were given by Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti.

They said the chief minister had taken serious notice of the existing ghost schools, absent teachers and other employees and non-functional schools in the province and ordered strict action against such teachers and other such schools’ staff.

“On the orders of the chief minister, the education department found ghost employees and issued termination orders of 65 teachers in the first phase while gradually services of 800 more such employees would be terminated after completing the necessary legal process,” an official of the education department said.

He added that over 3,000 non-functional schools in Balochistan were closed due to shortage of teachers. Most of these schools were found in Pishin district.

“Every closed school in Balochistan will be reopened and every child in the province will go to school,” the official quoted the chief minister as saying.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2024