LAKKI MARWAT: The district steering committee has asked the local authorities of education department to strictly monitor attendance of teachers in schools and initiate action against truant employees.

The committee met here at the district headquarters complex, Tajazai, on Wednesday with deputy commissioner Zafar Ali Shah in the chair. District education officer Nazir Khan, district officer finance Abdul Shakoor, district monitoring officer Kashmir Khan and other officials attended the meeting.

Mr Kashmir presented the data the monitoring officers had collected during schools` visits. He also briefed the participants about the missing facilities, teachers` attendance and presence of substitutes in place of actual employees in government schools.

He said that many schools did not maintain proper record of use of parentteacher council funds and disbursement of stipends among girl students. Matters pertaining to rationalisation of teachers were also discussed in the meeting.

The DC asked the male and female district education officers to improve the state of affairs in government schools in the light of data collected and compiled by the monitoring unit.

He also directed the local officials of the elementary and secondary education department to take disciplinary action against teachers skipping duty without filing leave applications.

He asked the officials to direct heads of schools to maintain proper record of PTC funds, stipends and teachers`leave record.

The deputy commissioner also visited city areas to review the ongoing anti-encroachment campaign. Chief municipal officer Asmatullah Khan and tehsildar Sanaullah Khan accompanied him. Correspondent