School education authorities terminated services of a government teacher in Ganderbal 15 years after the qualification certificate she had submitted at the time of recruitment was found to be fake.
The teacher was first engaged in 2003 under Rehbar-e-Taleem scheme and her service regularised in 2008 when she was deputed to district institute of education and training (DIET) in Ganderbal to pursue D.E.Ed course.
That is when her class 10th and 12th certificates were sent to JKBOSE for verification by the principal of DIET Ganderbal.
The termination order for the teacher (name withheld) was issued by director school education Kashmir (DSEK) on Monday after a report by the joint secretary verification in JK Board of School Education (BOSE) stated that the class 12th qualification certificate submitted by her was not genuine.
“The sanction is accorded to the termination of services of the ReT teacher with immediate effect,” reads the DSEK order which was issued after obtaining a report from joint secretary verification in JKBOSE about the genuineness of her class 12th certificate.
“Joint secretary verification informed that the class 12th certificate produced by the teacher does not exist in their records and as such declared the certificate as absolutely fake and fabricated,” the order reads.
According to the order, the verification officer at JKBOSE “certified the genuineness of class 10th certificate in 2016 and in 2017 declared the class 12th certificate as fake.” the order reads.
The ReT teacher had earlier denied the allegation and sought re-verification of her class 12th certificate after she was served a show cause by the concerned zonal education officer (ZEO).
“The certificate was sent by CEO Ganderbal and joint director elementary education after getting the certificate verified from the JKBOSE submitted a report that the certificate doesn’t exist in JKBOSE records and may be considered as fake and fabricated,” the order reads.
The termination of the teacher has raised questions on the department’s ability to scrutinize qualification certificates of candidates at the time of their recruitment as teachers.
In August 2015, the then education minister Naeem Akhtar had sought re-verification of the certificates possessed by Rehbar-e-Taleem teachers. The certificates were to be scrutinised as it was revealed that ReT teachers had managed to enter fake degree certificates in their service records post recruitment.
“But after re-verification of certificates, the teachers managed tampering of their service books in order to safeguard their services,” an official said.
A top source in the department said the ReT teachers in some districts have again bribed the officials in ZEO offices to enter higher qualification certificates, obtained from tuck shops, in their service books.
“If a fresh survey will be conducted the officials and teachers will face the axe,” he said.