LAYYAH, Jan 20: District education authorities on Thursday transferred headmistress and six teachers of a girls' middle school for making students pool money from their pockets to compensate for Rs500 allegedly stolen from the purse of institution's head.

Some students of the Government Girls Middle School, Bakhari Ahmed Khan, told Dawn requesting anonymity that the headmistress kausar Parween on Monday alleged that someone had stolen Rs500 from her purse during school timings.

Following the allegation, they said, some schoolteachers conducted a thorough search of the 150 students and their bags in a humiliating way.

On failing to recover the 'stolen' amount from students, the teachers ordered them to pool money to compensate for the headmistress's loss. Accordingly the students surrendered their pocket money to the teachers who gave the amount to the 'aggrieved' school head.

On learning about the incident, the students' parents staged a demonstration in front of the school on Thursday to protest conduct of the school head and the teachers, demanding disciplinary action against them.

Elementary Education District Officer Ms Tahira Parveen Chishti, after receiving parents' complaints, conducted a preliminary inquiry into the incident and ordered immediate transfer of the headmistress and five teachers on administrative ground. — Correspondent