HERAT CITY - Members of the provincial council of western Herat province on Monday claimed having evidence about widespread corruption and the presence of ghost teachers in district education offices of the province.
The council head, Kamran Alizayee, told a press conference in Herat City, the provincial capital, that they had evidence 20 to 30 ghost teachers in each district were regularly paid salaries without performing duty.
Some teachers in district schools even did not graduate from schools but they were paid salaries of bachelor’s degree holders, Alizayee added.
“There are 47 ghost teachers in Adraskan district alone, they do not perform duty but pocket salaries,” he said.
In addition to imaginary teachers, he said, teachers in most districts where schools had been closed continued to receive salaries.
Alizayee did not provide exact number of the schools closed, but said all or some of schools in most of the districts had been shut.
“Salaries of teachers in some districts are received by principles of the schools,” he said, adding corruption had been ongoing for years in the province but no one cared about.
He said a delegation from the central government should assess the issue and bring to justice those involved in corruption.
Meanwhile, Herat education director Abdul Razaq Ahmadi confirmed corruption and the presence of ghost teachers in the education sector.
He said some teachers in a number of districts did not receive their salaries while illiterate individuals had been forcibly employed as teachers to some schools by strongmen.
“The education department has begun its assessment of schools in Adraskan, Shindand, Chesht-i-Sharif, Oba and Farsi districts over the past six months,” Ahmadi said.
He did not provide the exact number of ghost teachers but said investigation into the matter was underway and the number of such teachers would be revealed in the presence of a delegation.
He said the education process in most of unstable districts could not be evaluated due to insecurity which he said paved the ground for corruption.  (Pajhwok)