Search Page

The SA Democratic Teachers Union came out strongly against the basic education department on Sunday, accusing senior officials of being involved in a jobs-for-cash syndicate and claiming that high ranking officials in the education department had either accepted bribes or used undue influence to appoint teachers and principals. But this allegation was rejected by an education spokesperson.

The Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture is investigating 82 learners suspected of cheating during their external exams in October and November this year. He declined to name the schools or regions where the learners are from but said they are from three different schools. One of the chief markers said that when the exam scripts were being marked it was observed that some students had the same answers.

The Basic Education Minister delivered a statement regarding the investigation into allegations of selling of posts for teachers following the release of preliminary report by her Task Team on the work done thus far. According to the minister the report, though not yet complete, has uncovered some very concerning tendencies that are being perpetuated in the appointment of teachers and principals. The full details of the report will be released at a later stage.

Many instances were witnessed across the country, where parents arrived at schools to return free uniform material vouchers which were invalid. There were also instances where parents complained of the insufficient value attached to these vouchers, and where parents were unable to purchase quality material for a specified price. Against this backdrop, several teachers and principals’ associations staged a joint media briefing in Colombo, highlighting the fact that teachers, students and parents, have been inconvenienced by the new voucher system.

The Ministry of Education (MoE) has commenced the teacher verification process to ensure the restructuring and rightsizing of the teaching workforce. The purpose of this initiative is to audit the teachers' payroll and correct all identified anomalies to ensure the elimination of persons with fraudulent qualifications from the system. Money saved by the MOE, if any, will be used to rationalize the pay and benefits of educators to attract and retain professionals in the field.

As part of his duties, a clerical officer at the ministry has seen the suspension and even the dismissal of a number of teachers found to have committed wrong in their schools either by abusing their pupils or by embezzling funds. He is now under the microscope himself, accused of holding fraudulent qualifications.

About 3,000 schoolteachers in Bihar, who allegedly used fake degree certificates to get jobs, have resigned till date apprehending legal action. Earlier, the state government admitted that it recruited more than 300,000 contract teachers without verifying their educational and professional degrees. The petitioner of the probe said he has collected documents as evidence through Right to Information queries to prove that thousands of teachers used forged degrees to get jobs.

Information related to students, teachers and schools will be a click away, from this academic year. The information will soon be available on a website hosted by the National Informatics Centre. The student database will help teachers and parents concentrate on learning levels. The online database will also be used to arrest the drop-out rate among students.