Fake degree: Teachers’ body approaches CM

The teachers were identified as Bhuvendra Pratap Singh,Birjuram Yadav and Awdhesh Kumar Girijashankar Shukla from Swami Vivekananda English High School in Jogeshwari,and Shyamlal Yadav and Dayashankar Tiwari from Jawahar Hindi Vidyalaya in Goregaon. They had claimed to have completed their BA and B.Ed from Sampurnanand Sanskrit University at Varanasi and managed to work as assistant teachers for over 17 years in the respective schools.

Following complaints from TDF,the Education Department verified the certificates and degrees of these teachers and suspended them after cancelling their approval. However,according to TDF,not a single case was verified after this. As per the list provided by the organisation,most of these teachers are in schools located in the western suburbs.

“These unqualified teachers were working in these schools for many years,while the teachers who actually worked hard for their degrees are unemployed. There are many others who have managed to get a job on the basis of fake degree certificates,” said Janardan Jangle,president of TDF.

The organisation also claimed they had submitted a list of 50 teachers from different schools in the city who allegedly have fake certificates. Jangle added,“We had submitted a list of names,along with evidence,to the Education Department. But our complaints have fallen on deaf ears. We have now submitted the list enclosed with necessary proofs to the Prime Minister’s Office. We have submitted the same letter and list to the CM and the school Education Minister on the Teacher’s Day.”

Education Inspector of Western zone P R Pawar said,“The organisation had given us the list of 50 teachers and we are treating the matter seriously. We have recently cancelled the approval of three more teachers in the list. We found their certificates bogus during verification. We have also been issuing showcause notices to the school managements who employ these teachers.”

However,TDF claims that no punitive action has been taken against these teachers and many of them continue to work in the same schools.