Authorities in Jammu’s Kishtwar district have ordered an inquiry after a government middle school was found locked during an inspection in a remote village, officials said on Wednesday. The district development commissioner Angrez Singh Rana has ordered withholding the salary of all the seven teachers posted in the school at Bhatan village for their unauthorised absence from duty, the officials said.

A special team headed by the tehsildar conducted a surprise inspection of the middle school on Tuesday and to their surprise found it locked, they said. After getting the report from the team, Rana took a serious note and immediately ordered an inquiry into the matter, the officials said. “The additional district development commissioner in Kishtwar has been appointed as inquiry officer,” the officials said.

The incident came to light a few months after the district development commissioner ordered to keep a close vigil on the functioning of educational institutes. According to sources, the order was issued following complaints that the teaching staff of several schools were not attending duties regularly.

Recently, the authorities have passed an order in Juneto release the salary of Kishtwar teaching staff in all government-run schools only after the teachers submit attendance certificates duly signed by parents of students and the local sarpanch. In its last inspection report,the authorities have highlighted the poor performance of students. The officials said fifth graders in some schools could not even count up to 100.