LODHRAN: A video footage showing the stocks of textbooks for public schools being transported on a rickshaw has gone viral on social media.

A probe by this Dawn correspondent showed the staff of the Government High School, Chak 90-M, Hayyatpur, is involved in selling the textbooks of the previous as well as the current session to scrap dealers. These books were for class six to 10 students.

Students of the school said that their teachers did not distribute some books to them at the start of the year. When they asked for books, their teachers told them the books of some subjects were out of stock and suggested them to buy the missing books from market.

Acting head of the school Iqbal Bhatti told Dawn they had sold old and torn books, not the new books, to scrap dealers.

One teacher told Dawn on the condition of anonymity that they sold junk, including new books and practical note books, to scrap dealer for Rs12 per kilogramme. He said they deposited that money to the school fund. He said there was no embezzlement of funds, but the school management was not following the official procedure to sell scrap.

Every school gets 10 per cent more books against student strength every year. Officially, schools are to send extra books to district education authorities to be shelved at a warehouse. A district body sells the stock through an auction.

A senior education department official said they had launched a probe into the issue.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2018