Corruption in Sindh Education Department

OUR EDUCATION DEPARTMENT IS DECAYING

by: Aslam Pervaiz Abro, Sindh

Former Investigation Officer, NAB

Our education department is decaying. Following is an account of my experience with the education department that I want to share with you all. This will give you a fair idea about some of the reasons of its present day pitiable condition. Recently, Ms Ayesha’s email, in which she verbalized her feelings, sparked a BIG debate in the group (E.S.). Sindhi Youth should not be castigated alone; the teachers and the educationists should also be collared for the education decay in Sindh. The teachers are regarded as role-models for the students in terms of character, knowledge, and behavior. Their actions should set a paradigm for the students to follow. In our midst, the teachers with noble characteristics are scarce. The education department in Sindh, administrated by teachers-turned- bureaucrats, is in tatters. The entire department is replete with corruption, and most of the teachers are corrupt in one way or the other.

I don’t want to go into depth of how EDOs, DOs, ADOs and Headmasters misappropriate government funds that are meant for promoting education in Sindh. But, I want to invite your attention to the conduct of the present day teachers of the Sindh. While in NAB Sindh, I had a chance to investigate the corruption cases in education departments of two of the districts. The minimum amount involved was Rs.550m and 460m in each case.

Surprisingly, all the money was embezzled by the teachers on account of exaggerated salaries, bogus BA.Ed, MA.Ed and MA degrees, fake bills of provident fund and the salaries of ghost teachers etc. In a district located in the northern Sindh, there are above 2,200 primary teachers. In that case, more than 1,900 teachers had drawn extra pay amounting to RS.550m in a year and half in connivance with the District Accounts Office. This corruption was committed some 4 years ago before the case was assigned to me. I asked the EDO to submit the service books of the teachers, so that I could proceed with the investigation. But, out of 2,200 service books, he could only produce 20. He said that the service books were being held by the corresponding teachers. This really startled me.

I learnt from the ADOs and some other eye-witnesses that the teachers had broken into ADO offices in large group and forcibly took away their service books to erase the proof of the bogus drawl of money. Service books are office documents and it was unlawful that the teachers had taken them away. I spoke about it with the District Coordination Officer. Even the DCO could not recover the service books despite his all-out efforts.

During the course of investigation, it was revealed that the teachers had forced the ADOs to sign the bogus bills on gun point. I also learnt that there were many teachers who used to physically beat the ADOs and his Office staff. Same was the condition with Secondary Schools. Once I held a meeting with DO, ADOs and 300 teachers to recover service books from them. The teachers simply denied to have any information about service books, and blamed that ADOs had lost the service books. During my conversation with the teachers, the DO whispered me to speak softly with teachers as he feared they would chant the slogans and call a strike. During entire meeting, the condition of the DOs and ADOs was like that of a “lamb before a wolf”. They were so scared and frightened by the teachers specially the office-bearers of Teachers’ Union. Looking at the whole situation, one can easily determine that in no way the teachers were practicing this noble profession. They appeared to be goons, miscreants and the BLACKMAILERS.

I scrutinized the record and found hundreds of ghost (bogus) teachers whose salaries were regularly drawn. During my visit I witnessed several schools that were being used as grain storages, dairy and cattle forms, otaqs of Bhotars, and disused. Students or teachers were nowhere to be seen. Working closely with them, I observed incompetence, lack of interest and dishonesty with profession in most of the teachers. There were good and excellent teachers as well but they could be counted on fingers.

The postings from HM to the EDO are made on political basis, thus the officials of the department prefer to serve their benefactors. Many a times they are posted on sharing booty. Once an ADO did not attend my meeting on the pretext of illness, but later on he was found serving food in a marriage ceremony of a local Wadera’s son.

In another case, a SDOE had broken all the records of corruption. He illegally got the Sub Treasury office in his home and thrashed out bogus bills. He was terminated from service on the charges of corruption. He remained absconder for 3 years to avoid the corruption cases. Later on, he greased the palms of his seniors and currently serving as DO Education in a district to mint more money without fear of accountability. Hundred of the teachers drew illegal money on fake provident fund and differential pay bills on account of higher qualifications, thus caused a loss of Rs.460m to government treasury.

There is widespread cry for embezzlement on account of the School Maintenance Committee (SMC) Fund. This fund is hardly utilized, and misappropriated by the Head Masters. Vulgar language, lack of ethics and quarrels among the teachers are routine matters. Many EDOs complained of insubordination of the teachers. They said that teachers do not listen to their directives, and they were unable to take any action against the teachers as the latter enjoyed a lot of political tutelage.

Teachers are role model for the students. They should be the men of integrity, honesty and spotless character to the best possible extent. They should impart not only the knowledge but also ethics, etiquettes and manners to the students. When this is the condition of our teachers as mentioned above, degradation of students is well-discernable.

—

Our source for above article is SANA list.