QUETTA: After ghost schools and ghost teachers, the government of Balochistan has now traced presence of 234,000 ghost students in the province which is already lagging behind other provinces in terms of literacy rate.

The ghost students were ‘enrolled’ by officers of education department and teachers to show maximum number of schools and get other monetary benefits, the provincial education secretary, Saboor Kakar, revealed on Monday.

He was addressing a gathering organised in connection with monitoring of teachers through modern technology at their schools.

Balochistan Chief Minister Dr. Malik Baloch, who inaugurated the "Real Time School Monitoring System", lashed out at officers and teachers for declining condition of education sector in the country's resource-rich province.

Additional Secretary Education Asfandyar Khan Kakar earlier briefed the participants with regard to the new system and shed light on its importance for ensuring the presence of teachers in government-run schools across the province.

"Please have mercy on kids and our next generation," the chief minister said while pointing towards officers and teachers. He said, "now we are tired to speaking for promotion of education and it was time to act not to think".

He said there were corrupt elements in education sector and an action against them was indispensable for promotion of education. “Still some officers are demanding bribery from the youths for provision of jobs to them,” Dr. Baloch said.

Our system could not verify 234,000 students clandestinely enrolled in various government-run schools of Balochistan, Saboor Kakar lamented. He also revealed that 900 ghost schools were also unearthed in the province.

Regarding the discovery of fake students, Kakar said, "Now our financial burden will also reduce".

He, however, stated that non-development budget was high in education sector — up to 71 per cent. The secretary education informed that 7,000 teachers would be trained to impart quality education to the children in the province.