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The Calcutta High Court has directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the alleged irregularities in the appointments of 269 teachers by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education in State-run schools. The 269 candidates were overmarked for a wrong question out of around 23 lakh aspirants in the Teachers’ Eligibility Test in 2014.

The Central Bureau of Investigation filed a report against the former deputy director of the West Bengal school education directorate, officials of the School Service Commission and the Board of Secondary Education for criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery for the purpose of cheating and using a forged document or electronic record as genuine. They extended undue advantage in appointing undeserving candidates to Group-D staff posts by violating departmental rules and using forged documents.

A study by Transparency International Bangladesh found secondary-level education activities, including recruitment of teachers and inclusion in the monthly pay order, plagued with widespread corruption and irregularities. To be appointed as assistant headmaster or headmaster, one needs to pay Tk 5,000 - 1 lakh bribe or Tk 3.5-15 lakh to be included in the monthly pay order. The study also found a lack of accountability in different administrative works of education officials who did not attend office in time and regularly.

An investigation is being conducted by The Teachers' Service Commission (TSC) after complaints that teachers' committees at the district level had promoted teachers that did not meet the criteria under the influence of bribes. A government official called on the TSC to establish a digital system for keeping teachers' information and offer a Customer Service Center for teachers whenever they encounter challenges in implementing their duties.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has launched a new biometric enrolment and validation of teachers system intended to address staff shortages and prevent the use of fake degrees. Pre-loaded data from the TSC payroll system will be validated when the teachers provide physical documents such as an enrolment certificate, national identity card, letter of first and last appointment together with their academic and professional certificates. This pilot registration took off in 143 schools in seven counties.

400 cases of fraud had been recorded in the examination conducted by the Ministry of Education for the recruitment of primary school teachers in the public service. The unsuccessful candidates accused the Recruitment Commission of allegedly failing to meet the age and grade criteria for the required qualification, the Certificate of Teaching Skills for Nursery and Primary School Teachers. 21-year-old candidates who were supposed to have obtained the certificate at the age of 15 were selected, whereas the civil service only recruits people aged 32 at the most.

Police arrested eight persons who duped teacher-aspirants on the pretext of helping them crack the assistant teachers’ recruitment examination that was held to recruit 69,000 teachers in 2019. The aspirants gave Rs1 lakh as an advance while the remaining amount was to be given after declaration of results. Cash worth Rs 7.56 lakh, mark sheets of many aspirants, and other documents along with a diary containing details of candidates were recovered from the accused.

The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) arrested three secondary school teachers for their involvement in taking bribes and making fake appointments based on fake degrees in the Punjab Education Department. Some influential political figures have made efforts to obtain the release of arrested teachers, but have failed due to ACE’s investigation into this issue.

The elementary and secondary education department has terminated the services of 104 teachers and other employees in the merged tribal districts for securing jobs on fake degrees or absenting themselves from duty for a long time during the last two decades. The department of education will examine the academic degrees and certificates of all employees in tribal districts.