Assameducation minister RanojPeguhas vowed to weed out ghost teachers along with ghost schools. The minister was referring to those teachers who have not yet uploaded their profile on the Education portal, Shiksha Setu.
The announcement came after the annual grants for the government-run schools were released on Sunday. However, funds were not pumped into those institutions from which the teachers did not comply with the government instructions of updating their profile on Siksha Setu, which gives comprehensive details about all the schools.
The Assam State Primary Teachers Association (ASPTA) has been at loggerheads with the education minister and the , decrying the failure to officially create the posts of headmasters. In protest, the teachers have not uploaded the required data on the portal. However, Pegu warned that salaries of such teachers may be stopped in the next two months, if they dont toe the line.
Assam reported a drop in school enrolment by 4.5 lakh in the last one year (from 2021-22 to 2022-23). This raised concern in the education department, which suspected manipulation of students’ data by the school authorities earlier for getting more monetary benefits in the name of ‘ghost students’.