Punjab May Shut 5,000 Afternoon Schools Over Fraud

APP

Lahore: More than 5,000 afternoon schools across Punjab may soon shut down as the provincial government reviews the program following revelations of widespread irregularities, including fake student enrollments and bogus teacher appointments.

Official sources confirmed that funding for the initiative has already been reduced in the current fiscal year, leaving only about 1,500 of the roughly 7,500 afternoon schools likely to remain operational. These surviving schools will be limited to just 14 districts, with Lahore expected to retain only 60 double-shift schools.

The afternoon school program, launched in 2020 under then–Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar, was introduced to bridge educational gaps in under-served and remote rural areas. Initially, nearly 2,000 schools were made functional under the scheme.

Although the Education Ministry had set up monitoring committees in 43 districts to ensure transparency and quality, recent reports flagged inflated student enrollments and fraudulent staffing practices as major concerns. The findings have prompted the government to reconsider the program’s viability and drastically scale it back.

Officials say the decision underscores both the urgency of addressing corruption in the education sector and the challenge of sustaining initiatives aimed at expanding access to schooling in rural Punjab.