HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, July 9: Following the detection of “ghost students,” the state government is now set to tackle the issue of “ghost schools and teachers,” announced state education minister Ranoj Pegu on Sunday.
Related Posts:
To address the problem, special grants for schools that have failed to provide complete information about their staff have been temporarily suspended. The salaries of such employees will be halted within the next two months, Pegu stated.
During a press conference, Pegu highlighted the need to address the presence of ghost students, schools, and teachers, referring to those that exist only on paper in order to fraudulently obtain government funds.
In June, approximately 450,000 ghost students were discovered in government and private schools during the reconciliation of enrollment figures from the previous year.
Pegu revealed that over 11,000 lower and upper primary government schools have not provided the complete data of their staff, including both teaching and non-teaching personnel, as requested by the education department.
The schools were required to upload the information on the dedicated portal “Shikshya Setu”. Upon cross-checking with their records, it was found that 11,483 schools have not furnished details of all their staff.
“We will put the Annual School grants and Sports and Physical Education grants for 2023-24 on hold until they upload all the required details,” Pegu explained.
The minister also announced that grants would be sanctioned for schools that have provided complete information. However, if the schools fail to comply, salaries may have to be discontinued starting from August or September.
Pegu emphasised that only basic details such as educational qualifications, joining date, and transfers were requested. He added that if schools cannot provide even these minimal details, the government cannot allocate public funds for their salaries, as they are accountable to the people.
While 208,000 teaching and non-teaching employees have uploaded their details, around 35,500 are yet to do so.
Pegu urged those who have not yet provided the necessary information to do so immediately, stating that schools that complete the data upload will promptly receive the grants. However, he did not specify a specific timeframe for the same. In addition, the state government has disbursed Rs 96.21 crore as School Grants to 40,970 Lower Primary (LP) and Upper Primary (UP) schools, as per the education minister’s announcement.
Announcing the move on Twitter, the state education minister said, “Assam Govt has released Rs 96.21 Cr. as School Grants to 40970 LP & UP schools today. Grants to 11480 schools have been held back as some teachers from these schools have not updated their staff profiles in Shiksha Setu portal. Once they update, grants will be released.”
Pegu also noted that grants for 11,480 schools have been temporarily withheld due to incomplete staff profiles on the Siksha Setu portal. He assured that once the updates are made, the grants will be released accordingly.
The education minister further shared that out of the 242,114 teaching and non-teaching staff in 45,983 government and provincialized schools, a total of 208,531 have already updated their profiles on the Siksha Setu platform. Pegu urged the remaining 33,583 staff members (26,117 from elementary schools and 7,466 from secondary schools) to update their profiles as soon as possible. (With inputs from PTI)
