Under the five-year Education Sector Plan (ESP), the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has launched a pilot programme to eliminate discrepancies in teachers’ salaries. This is part of the Rs593 billion reforms that the government has prioritised for quality education.
Under the new budgeting and expenditure system, a disbursing officer (DDO) code will help track all payments made by the education department.
Around 464 higher secondary schools and 2,158 high schools out of 27,121 public sector schools are presently being tracked.
This programme is being rolled out across the province so that there will be a transparent real-time system available on an online portal for all schools.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Elementary and Secondary Education Muhammad Atif Khan said: “This will help end the culture of ghost teachers and teacher absenteeism.”
There will be enhanced financial equity among school. The mechanism acts as a viable planning tool on a single, standardised platform. It also provides improved monitoring of all financial transactions and helps with collaboration among stakeholders.
“We are very pleased with this intervention because it will lead to an end to all embezzlement, misappropriation and irregularities that have happened in the past and will ensure full public disclosure of essential fiscal and personnel data of each school,” said Atif Khan.
Given its size and proximity to the K-P provincial capital, Karak served as the ideal pilot city. Within four months of its launch, more than 30 ghost teachers were identified in Karak district. To scale this up across the province, two committees have been recommended both at the district and province levels.
Within a few months the pilot project will extend to Swat, Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Abbottabad, Charsadda, Nowshera, Chitral and Battagram.
