A teacher recruitment scam has come to light in Bihar. The investigation has found 4000 fraudulent teachers who used fake certificates and secured the job despite having low marks in CTET. The government has decided to take strict action against the accused, as more than 24 thousand teachers could potentially lose their employment.
It is necessary to pass the CTET exam to become a teacher in the state. Those who score less than 60% in CTET are not considered eligible for the position. However, it has been discovered that over 4,000 teachers have CTET scores below the required percentage. 80% of them received a lower percentage than the mandated score and many of them even acquired less than 50% marks in CTET.
Furthermore, the probe unveiled that the remaining teachers have used fake caste certificates, residence certificates and disability certificates to secure jobs. Some even produced bogus documents and were hired under the sports quota. The teacher recruitment scam puts the jobs of almost 24,000 teachers at risk. It has been uncovered that several of their certificates are falsified. These teachers will now be re-examined and will be removed from their posts as well as face legal action if, even after this evaluation, inaccurate information regarding their certificates comes out.
A few days ago, counselling of 1,87,000 candidates who passed the competency test was completed. Over 3000 teachers did not even make it to the counselling, and 42,000 teachers could not be counselled during the sessions held between 1st August and 13th September. More than 10,000 of these 42,000 teachers were unable to be biometrically verified. The education department stated that the counselling will be organised for the remaining individuals following the Chhath festival. Meanwhile, large-scale rigging came to the fore during the counselling of the candidates who passed the competency test.
Multiple certificates were found to be fake during the verification process and the concerned universities were asked to look into the matter. Action has been taken against the 96 teachers whose mark sheets were discovered to be fraudulent during the initial counselling session. According to the information, the education department has sent the suspicious mark sheets to the administrative officers of the universities and asked for details about them. The experience certificates of the teachers are also to be investigated.
Director of Secondary Education Yogendra Singh informed that counselling of more than 40 thousand teachers is still pending in the state and is likely to take place in November. He added that their caste, residency, and educational credentials will be compared to their Aadhar cards using biometric authentication during transfer. Their thumb impressions will also be analysed. Every document will be entered into the service book, and an online digital service book will also be created.
