QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch revealed on Monday that there were about 900 ghost schools and 300,000 bogus enrolment of students in the public sector schools in the province.

Speaking at a gathering jointly organised by the education department and Unicef to introduce a monitoring system for schools, the chief minister said that some education department officials were behind the business of ghost schools which was not only inflicting a heavy loss on the national exchequer, but also damaging the standard of education in the province.

`There are some blacksheep in the education department who are behind these ghost schools,` he said, adding that such officials also took bribe for transfer and posting of teachers.

Malik Baloch held out the assurance that stern action would be taken against the officials involved in the corrupt practice and culture of bribe would be eliminated in the province. No one would be allowed to play with the future of children, he said.

He appealed to teachers to fulfil their responsibilities and perform their duty according to rules.

The chief minister said his government was working to make the process of recruitments in the education department transparent and was trying to provide all possible facilities to the public sector schools.

He said Rs160 billion had been allocated in the budget for salaries of government employees and Rs40bn for development projects.