CIAA to probe into teachers educational qualification certificates

Kathmandu, Dec 8: The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has directed its regional offices to probe into the academic qualification certificates of all the teachers employed in the community or government schools.

The anti-graft body took the step acting in response to increasing complaints over the teachers' qualifications and accountability of the previously carried out investigation, and in view of the high number of resignations tendered by teachers during preliminary investigation.

 Commission's Joint Spokesperson Keshav Prasad Ghimire said the directive was issued to discourage the trend seen among the teachers to use fake certificates when applying for jobs and during promotion. Ghimire said the teachers are regarded as idol of morality and dignity in the society and tasked with guiding the students.

The anti-graft body has asked the concerned District Education Offices to collect the certificates of the teachers and hand them over.

The directive of the Commission in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur calls for verification of the educational certificates provided by the educational institutes based in the country and further probe into the other educational certificates.

The decision will also be effective in addressing the absence of actual details over the teachers educational qualification registered at the Department of Education and Department of Teachers Personal Records under the Ministry of Education.

Of the total 162,000 seats, 107,000 teachers hold permanent status while the rest are working on a temporary basis. The CIAA had filed cases relating to 80 fake certificates of academic qualification to the Special Court last year.

Ghimire said the CIAA will not spare the teachers for infraction even if the teachers resigned during the investigation and found to have used fake certificate.          

Most of the complaints filed at the CIAA are in connection to education sector and even more over fake certificates of the teachers. At least 1,000 complaints of such nature are pending at the CIAA.

The complaints also range over the Jhole schools (schools limited to papers only).  At least 54 complaints of this kind have been filed at CIAA in the current fiscal year. RSS