LAHORE, June 16: Punjab education department (schools) has collected data about absentee as well as “on-leave” teachers through monitoring teams and forwarded it to respective executive district officers (EDOs) for necessary action.

It is learnt that teams comprising retired army personnel are visiting all public sector schools on regular basis to monitor teachers’ attendance and provision of free books to students, besides receiving complaints including those about excessive fees being charged from students.

Punjab Special Secretary (schools) Zahid Saeed said the data compiled by the department in the light of monitoring teams’ reports showed that there were over 1,000 teachers who were in the habit of remaining absent or on leave.

He said the EDOs had been asked to monitor the attendance record of such teachers, besides finding out whether they actually existed.

He said the EDOs would also be required to check their links with the respective headmasters. Similarly, he said, the EDOs would also probe into other issues mentioned in monitoring teams’ reports.

He said the EDOs would be required to submit their reports about action, if any, taken against such teachers within a month’s time.

Mr Saeed said the monitoring teams were doing a good job and their reports were enabling the department to have a true picture of conditions in the public schools of the province.

Initially, he said, 35 retired army personnel were recruited, assigning each of them a district for monitoring schools. Later, he said, the department recruited 85 more army personnel and deputed them in 120 tehsils of the province for the purpose.

Lately, Mr Saeed said the chief minister had ordered recruitment of more army men to expand the monitoring network so that each school could be inspected once a month at least.

Presently, he said, 929 officials, recruited on two-year contract, were working in the field.

He also said the education department would extend the contract period of these personnel when it expired.