Saturday, November 11, 2006

School for chickens

Pakistani authorities found chickens, not children, when they went to inspect a state-run primary school after a tip-off the establishment was being used to produce poultry.

So-called ghost schools – where people pocket government funds for education but use the schools for their own purposes – are a common problem in Pakistan.

"Chickens, television sets, video recorders, playing cards and breeding cages were found in what were supposed to be classrooms but no students," Kanwar Naved, the mayor of the city of Hyderabad said on Wednesday.

"According to education department records, the school had 59 students and two teachers," he said.

Some workers detained in the Wednesday raid near Hyderabad said the school had been used as a poultry farm for the past 12 years, he said.

Police have been ordered to investigate and file a case against the farm owners.

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