In a startling revelation, the Punjab Education Department has uncovered 1.8 million ghost enrollments in government schools across the province, exposing a massive fraud that has cost the provincial government Rs50 billion annually.

The fake enrollment figures, inflated by teachers to avoid transfers and secure funding, were unearthed through a data-driven investigation conducted in collaboration with data engineers and cross-verification with NADRA records.

According to Punjab Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat, the actual number of students enrolled in government schools is around nine million, but records falsely showed 10.8 million, meaning that one in every five students was a ghost.

“The budget is issued based on the teacher-student ratio. To avoid transfers, teachers exaggerated student numbers. This malpractice has been going on for years,” said the education minister.

Widespread manipulation across districts

Over 40,000 fake registrations were discovered in schools across various districts, with the highest numbers reported in Faisalabad, Lahore, Gujranwala, Rahim Yar Khan, Rawalpindi, and Bahawalpur.

The fraud not only led to unnecessary disbursement of funds – an estimated Rs4 billion per month in non-salary expenditures – but also resulted in unjustified teacher allocations.

47,000 additional teachers identified

The investigation also revealed that 47,000 surplus teachers were posted at schools based on falsified student strength. These educators will now be reallocated to schools facing staff shortages, and no new recruitment will be made in the near future, the minister confirmed.

NADRA verification key to cleanup

Using biometric and registration data from NADRA, the Education Department was able to accurately identify legitimate students and flag false entries.