Newspaper ads seek info on 250 ‘missing’ teachers

BHOPAL: Ever heard of school teachers having been missing from their jobs for years? Yes, this is a bizarre situation that

school education department

is facing.

If this is not all, the department has now sought help of public through advertisements to find them.

Around 250 names of teachers have been listed in the advertisement released by the department of public relations (DPI) for publication. In the notice, the DPI has asked the public to immediately notify it if there is any information regarding these teachers.

Confirming the same, director DPI Anju Bhadoriya said the district education officers (DEOs) of all districts had raised the issue of missing teachers from their duties with the department following which, the information about them is being sought.

“DEOs informed us that they were not able to track these teachers. So, we decided to publish their names in the newspaper so that people could help us to locate them or they can themselves get back to work,” she said.

She said that by publishing the names in newspapers, DPI will quickly get information on them and swift action would be initiated.

The school education department earlier also uploaded this information on its education portal under the title ‘absconding’ teachers list.

Asked about the reasons for being away from their duties, she said there could be several reasons including miscommunication between departments, medical emergencies, leaving job without notifying department among others.

Commissioner DPI

Jayshree Kiyawat

told TOI that since the department is huge, the location of some employees has become untraceable following which the information is being sought through newspaper notification. “We will wait for the outcome of the notification till June 11 and thereafter action will be taken. Those who will be at fault would be terminated,” she said.

As per rough figures, at least 8 are missing from Bhopal, Khandwa, Gwalior and

Betul

, 7 from Ujjain, 9 from Jabalpur and 4 each from

Balaghat

and

Shahdol

, 5 from Katni, Panna, Sidhi.

At least 5-6 teachers are missing in other 26 districts who are not coming to school.

They have not joined their duty over the years. Sources told TOI that these teachers have been missing from more than five years.

“A number of notices were issued to them but of no avail as there is no information about them and their posting,”sources said.