Sindh Has Thousands of Ghost Teachers

A recent investigation revealed the presence of 6,342 ghost teachers within the Sindh Education Department.

The Director General of Monitoring and Evaluation for the School Education and Literacy Department submitted a critical report to the Sindh Education Secretary, revealing that these ghost teachers had received salaries without performing their teaching duties.

The investigation also found that some retired employees were improperly continuing to receive pensions and benefits. The report recommended freezing these ghost teachers’ identity cards and salaries and initiating legal action against them.

The Education Secretary forwarded the report to the Education Minister for further action.

This revelation comes after it was discovered that many of these absent teachers had traveled abroad. In response, the Sindh Education Department has requested records from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

Sindh’s education system faces numerous challenges, with a literacy rate of around 60 percent, which is below the national average.

The province’s educational sector has long struggled with systemic issues, including inadequate teaching resources and limited access to quality education in rural areas.

Educational facilities in Sindh are often under-resourced, with frequent shortages of textbooks, teaching materials, and functional classrooms. Teacher absenteeism is a significant concern, with ghost teachers being a prominent example of the problem.

Many teachers receive salaries without fulfilling their duties, leading to high absenteeism and a decline in educational quality.

Administrative inefficiencies further aggravate these issues. Ineffective monitoring and poorly managed payroll systems have allowed the problem of ghost teachers to persist unchecked.

Disparities in educational access further exacerbate the situation, particularly in rural areas where many schools suffer from a shortage of qualified teachers and inadequate infrastructure. The uneven distribution of resources has deepened the educational inequalities between urban and rural regions of Sindh.