look news india
A very shocking and big revelation has come to light regarding the quality and transparency of education in Teacher Training Institutes and B.Ed / D.El.Ed colleges across the country. A huge fraud has been exposed during the high-level digital scrutiny and Aadhaar-based faculty mapping process of the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE). Investigation has found that the name of the same teacher (faculty member) is registered as a regular professor or lecturer in the master roll of more than 90 different B.Ed and educational institutions located in different states of the country. This special portal verification campaign run by NCTE has exposed the entire network of education mafia running with the help of fake documents and paper teachers. After this serious fraud came to light, NCTE has taken a tough stand and issued show cause notices to the accused institutions and has started the process of canceling their recognition with immediate effect.
#1. Nationwide fraud detected through NCTE’s digital faculty module
The ‘National Teacher Education Portal’ and Biometric Aadhaar Linkage System, launched by NCTE to create a transparent system, have played a major role in detecting this fraud. Earlier, B.Ed and D.El.Ed colleges used to easily obtain NOC and recognition from NCTE and respective state universities by merely submitting the list of teachers on paper. However, when NCTE did digital mapping of PAN numbers and Aadhaar cards by connecting the faculty data of all recognized teacher education institutions across the country to a central server, shocking figures came to light. The investigation found that the credentials of several professors and lecturers were being shown on the salary rolls simultaneously in dozens of colleges in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana, while in reality those teachers were not teaching regularly in any single institution.
#1. B.Ed colleges were running rampant without teachers and playing with the future of students.
This big revelation has exposed the corruption and negligence prevalent in the teacher training structure of the country. B.Ed and D.El.Ed colleges require a prescribed number of full-time teachers with PhD, NET passed and M.Ed qualifications as per NCTE rules to maintain recognition. To avoid huge salaries, many private college managements were jointly running the unethical game of ‘Rent-a-Faculty’. In this, the educational documents and bank details of some qualified teachers were hired and uploaded on the portals of dozens of colleges and only paper forms were filled at the time of inspection. This fraud was having a direct and fatal impact on the education and future of lakhs of students who take admission in these institutions by paying huge fees every year.
#1. Process of de-recognition of guilty colleges started and preparation of FIR
This serious matter of faculty duplication and submission of fake documents has been taken extremely seriously by the higher authorities of NCTE. According to the instructions issued by the NCTE Headquarters, more than 90 colleges where the name of the same teacher has been found registered have been issued show cause notices with immediate effect and asked to give their explanations within 15 days. If the college managements fail to give satisfactory reply, their permanent affiliation will be terminated with immediate effect under Section 17 of the NCTE Act. Apart from this, letters are being sent to the State Governments and Police Administration to register FIR under relevant sections of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery against the colleges preparing fake documents and the middlemen (middlemen) involved.
#1. Serious questions were also raised on the concerned state universities and affiliation bodies.
This national level scam has put in the dock not only the college owners but also the administrative machinery of the state universities that approve annual affiliation and examination center allotment to these colleges every year. As a rule, special inspection committees of universities physically visit colleges before every session to inspect the infrastructure and faculty. The question being raised is why the Vice Chancellors and Deans of the universities did not pay attention to this game that has been going on for years. Education experts believe that such a huge fraud would not have been possible without the local administrative connivance, hence NCTE is now expanding the scope of investigation and objectively reviewing the role of the officials of the inspection committees.
#1. Roadmap to improve teacher education and implement digital biometric system across the country
After this fraud came to light, NCTE has prepared a new security and transparency roadmap for all B.Ed, M.Ed, D.El.Ed and B.P.Ed institutions across the country. From now on, real-time GPS-based biometric attendance system is being made mandatory for all teachers and non-teaching staff in all recognized institutions, which will be directly linked to the central NCTE dashboard. Additionally, NCTE will recognize only those teachers whose salaries are directly transferred to their Aadhaar-linked bank accounts through the PFMS system. This historic step will not only end the network of fake teachers forever, but will also bring about a revolutionary improvement in the quality and training standards of prospective teachers in the country.