Assam plans to eliminate "ghost schools and teachers," says Education Minister Ranoj Pegu

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• Jul 9, 2023 | Poonam Nath

Over 11,000 lower and upper primary government schools have failed to give the department's complete data...

Digital Desk: State Education Minister Ranoj Pegu stated on Sunday that Assam intends to eliminate "ghost schools and teachers" after "ghost students." According to him, special grants to schools that didn't give accurate staff information have been halted, and the salaries of such employees would be dismissed within the next two months.

"We had already detected ghost students," Pegu stated at a press briefing today. There may now be ghost schools and teachers." Ghost pupils, schools, and teachers are only present on paper." 

Pegu further continued by saying, "It is done to get government cash for a variety of purposes. During the reconciliation of enrolment data with the previous year, the state discovered almost 4.50 lakh ghost pupils in government and private schools in June." 

According to Pegu, over 11,000 lower and upper primary government schools have failed to give the department complete data on their workers, which includes both teaching and non-teaching personnel. The data was to be uploaded to the 'Shiksha Setu' portal. We discovered that 11,483 schools did not disclose all staff information after cross-checking our records. Until they upload all of the details, we will put Annual School Grants and Sports and Physical Education Grants on hold for 2023-24," he stated. 

The minister also announced the approval of funds for schools that have given the necessary information.

"We are now putting the grants on hold; if they don't give us the details, we may have to stop paying people in August or September," he warned. He emphasised that just essential information such as educational qualifications, joining date, transfers, and so on were requested.

 "If they can't provide even those few details, the government won't be able to pay them a salary with public funds. We are responsible to the people," Pegu added. 

While 2.08 lakh of these institutions' teaching and non-teaching workers have uploaded their information, approximately 35,500 have yet to do so.

"Once the majority has uploaded, it is reasonable to wonder why the rest were unable to do so. Some may have legitimate reasons, so we ask them to provide facts as soon as possible," he remarked. 

Schools that finish the data uploading process would receive the subsidies immediately, according to the minister, though he did not provide a timeline.