ISLAMABAD:A chunk of the national exchequer is being used to fund schools in Balochistan that only exist on paper. Salaries were issued to teachers working in ghost schools across Balochistan by the National Education Foundation (NEF), even after the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) confirmed that the institutions were non-functional, sources revealed.

The salaries were paid on the orders of "higher-ups" within the NEF, according to the organisation"s Managing Director Kamran Zafar. While talking to The Express Tribune, Zafar revealed that "despite my reservations, the minister concerned directed me to release the salaries of teachers of such dubious schools". He added: "I was not in favour of releasing salaries, but I had to do it on the directives of the high-ups".

The teachers in question were working for the Basic Education Community Schools (BECS) initiative. A source in NEF said NADRA has detected more than 300 bogus schools in Balochistan alone, and approximately the same number in Sindh, after a thorough verification process which is now 95 per cent complete.

Involvement of NEF officials

A few months back, NADRA was tasked with verifying the status of BECS across the country on Zafar"s request after receiving reports that many were in fact non-functional, although teachers were continuing to receive salaries in different areas " particularly in far-flung areas of Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Zafar had asked for the initiation of a verification process after suspecting that the ghost schools were being run with the blessing of senior NEF officials " who also had political backing. In Balochistan, the MD added, the salaries were issued on the basis of bogus claims made by the NEF provincial director. "The existence of ghost schools is a reality and the majority of them are in Balochistan and Sindh," the MD said.

The attempt to cover up the ghost schools in the province appears to be completely deliberate. Zafar said that in the past, Balochistan officials of the NEF always avoided arranging field-visits to far-flung areas citing the deteriorating law and order situation " but the real reason was to keep the ghost schools away from the limelight.

Sources said Balochistan is the leading province as far as ghost schools are concerned. Out of 1, 258 BECS in Balochistan, over 300 were found to be non-existent, while NEF officials, in mutual connivance, continued to show them on paper to enable the continued flow of funds and salaries.

"Verification process complicated"

Balochistan NEF Acting Director Meherullah, however, had a completely different story to tell. When contacted, he said that according to the NADRA verification, out of 831 schools, 584 were found functional, 142 were found counterfeit and the remaining were "mismatched" with the identification of original teachers.

He said that according to a previous survey conducted by NEF officials in March 2011, there were 200 ghost schools. Meherullah added that Balochistan has many "backward localities" and difficulties were faced in finding female teachers, which increased complications as far as verification was concerned.

He, however, rejected reports that the NEF has paid salaries to the teachers of ghost schools, saying that teachers in the province hadn"t received salaries since last October.

There are around 15,000 BECS across the country under the supervision of NEF. The federal government had not allocated funds for the NEF programme in the current budget after the devolution of education ministry under the 18th amendment. The federal government was, however, forced to take it up once again on the directives of the Supreme Court.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10th, 2012.

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News Source: http://tribune.com.pk/story/319130/balochistan-nef-initiative-school-teachers-keep-pocketing-salaries/

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