PESHAWAR — The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Elementary and Secondary Education Department has officially barred all teaching staff from visiting departmental offices during school hours.
The directive, issued earlier this week, aims to curb rising absenteeism in classrooms across the province. Officials claim that a growing number of teachers have been neglecting their duties to pursue administrative matters, transfers, or personal grievances at district and provincial offices.
Under the new policy, any teacher found inside an education office during official school timings will face immediate disciplinary action. District Education Officers (DEOs) have been instructed to monitor office premises and report unauthorized visits to the provincial headquarters.
The department has also mandated that all administrative requests be submitted through designated online portals or via official correspondence through the school headmaster. Walk-in requests, which previously clogged the system and pulled educators away from their primary responsibility, are no longer permitted.
This move follows internal audits that revealed thousands of “unaccounted” hours lost each month across the province. In some districts, schools were left understaffed as teachers spent entire mornings waiting for clerks or administrative officials to process paperwork.
While the department insists this is a necessary step to restore academic discipline, the move has drawn mixed reactions from teacher unions. Some representatives argue that the bureaucracy is often unresponsive to online inquiries, forcing teachers to visit in person to resolve urgent payroll or promotion issues.
The provincial education ministry remains firm, however, stating that the classroom is the only place for a teacher during duty hours. Any teacher caught bypassing these rules will now face a formal inquiry, with the department warning that “zero tolerance” will be applied to those found outside their assigned schools.
