SWABI, May 31: Twenty-one literacy centres, 10 of them for girls, were closed down in district Swabi. The centres were established under the Literacy for All (EFA) project and the main objective was to educate youngsters, especially girls.

A press release issued on Tuesday said that negligence and poor performance of teachers were the main reasons for the closure of the centres.

Acting organiser of the project Aurang Zeb Khan and Project Director Mohammad Naseer Khan paid surprise visits to different centres. They ordered the closure of 11 male and 10 female centres.

They also visited centres in difference union councils and appreciated the performance of some teachers and their techniques for imparting education. But it was not clear whether the centres would be reopened and what would be the fate of the teachers who were associated with the centres.

Sources told this correspondent that due to summer holidays from June 1 the EFA officials wanted to save money by avoiding payment of salary to teachers for the vacation period.

When contacted the teachers concerned said that they did nothing wrong and the officials concerned were only looking for a pretext to close down the centres. They called for reopening of the centres and said that on the one side the authorities wanted to achieve 100 per cent literacy rate by 2015 but on the other they were targeting teachers and closing centres.