Bihar school teachers get BEd degrees before birth

Abhay Kumar

In an educational record of sorts, L B Singh from Bihar has claimed in his official documents that he received a BEd (Bachelor of Education) degree seven years before he was born.

Singh, a teacher in a government school in Saharsa, was born in 1986, but according to official records, he got his BEd degree in 1979.

Suffice to say, an inquiry found that he had got the job using a fake degree. He has been dismissed from service.

But Singh is not an isolated case. Indu Kumari of Saran accomplished the same “feat”, securing a BEd degree seven years before she was born. Similar are the tales of Shivnarain Yadav of Madhepura, and Preeti Kumari and T P Singh of Champaran, who all “received” BEd degrees three to five years prior to their birth.

All these teachers have also been summarily dismissed. “Altogether, 306 teachers, who were found to have secured employment through fake degrees, have been dismissed from service,” said R S Singh, joint director of Bihar’s Primary Education Department.  “The dismissed employees include 39 teachers each from Vaishali and Gopalganj and 36 teachers in the Kaimur district,” he added.

Education Department sources said the Supreme Court in 2010 had instructed Bihar government to appoint 34,540 trained teachers in the state. Acting on the directive, the state government in 2012 appointed 32,127 teachers on a regular basis after verifying their credentials. After confirmation of their job, these teachers were paid around Rs 32,000 per month.

But those candidates who could not qualify or meet the eligibility criteria cried foul and alleged that many of the selected candidates held forged mark-sheets and fake degrees.  As a result, an inquiry was set up to clear the air.

It is now estimated that around 3,000 of the 32,127 successful candidates have fake degrees. Out of them, 95 teachers got their BEd degrees either before their birth or much before attaining the age of 21.

Source: deccanherald