Two orders passed by the Allahabad High Court in early July have described long-standing malpractice and fraud in Uttar Pradesh’s education department that could be as large in scale as the Vyapam, or cash-for-jobs, scam in Madhya Pradesh.
One order, passed on July 10, said that the education department was involved in misappropriating grants for schools and colleges, helping organise mass cheating and copying at examination centres and withholding salaries of temporary teachers. The other order, passed on July 6, noted that the government was consistently violating rules governing the selection and appointment of teachers and principals, and said the court would examine on August 10 the education department’s response to its observations.
“The budgetary allocation made by [the] government for education is being misappropriated with the collusion of the management,…officials,…senior officers and the agents who manage the things…The facility of mass copying or [the] use of unfair means is being provided on [a] contractual basis,” a two-judge bench said on July 10. “Such things are becoming cancerous for our education system.”
The judges, Rajesh Kumar and Shamsher Bahadur Singh, also said that the court would appoint a panel to investigate the fraud and suggest mechanisms to curb corruption in education. They also directed the chief minister, Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, to cancel exemptions on property and water taxes that his government now grants to both aided and private educational schools and colleges.
The July 6 order was also passed by a two-judge bench, of Arun Tandon and Ashwani Kumar Mishra. “The entire education [system] in UP is being ruined because of incompetent persons being appointed to hold selection for the post of principals or lecturers,” they said in their order. “Has UP state become so bankrupt in academia or administrative officers that it has to appoint persons as chairman or members of the selection board who have made absolutely no contribution in the field of education?”
Old cases
The July 10 order was related to a case filed against the UP government more than ten years ago by Ram Veer Singh, a temporary teacher since 1989, asking the high court to direct the government to pay him his salary dues, which he claimed had been pending for several years. The judges dismissed his case, explaining that the department’s appointment of temporary teachers was itself illegal so they could not intervene in this matter.
At the same time, the affidavits and documents filed in relation to the case, revealed a larger malaise in the state’s education sector. The judges’ order said that the education department was involved in “foul play” with temporary teachers by not paying their meagre monthly salary of Rs 450 for up to 25 years and never making them permanent.
“[There are] irregularities right from the stage of granting aid to [an] institution, in appointment of teachers and staff and payment of salary. The grant amount provided to majority of funded educational institutions is higher than the money required by the institutions. This money drawn from the exchequer was shared between officials and other stake holders including teaching staff…The centres of examinations are being auctioned.”
The July 6 order came in response to a case filed in 2006 by Abhilasha Mishra who wanted the court to order the government to reconstitute a selection committee that was to interview her for the post of principal in a secondary school because its members did not have the qualifications as stipulated by the Intermediate Education Act 1921.
This law says that a member of such a committee must be a principal of a recognised college, a senior gazetted officer of the education department, a university professor, reader or senior lecturer of a college recognised by the university, or anyone who has made a valuable contribution in the field of education”
But the education department had chosen as the committee’s chair a junior teacher who was herself ineligible to apply for a post of senior teacher yet was empowered to choose a principal of a secondary school. One committee member worked as a clerk in the education department and another was a temporary teacher at a private school.
The state government, in a submission to the court, defended itself, saying that the panel’s composition was not improper because the rules stipulating the qualifications of members had been relaxed in 2008.
Whatever the rules, the judges expressed shock that “persons holding the post of clerks and subordinate teachers comprised the selection committees to interview academicians and professors for the vacant posts of principals and senior teachers.”
It ordered the government to dissolve the selection committee. “The court will not be a mute spectator. The state cannot be permitted to break the backbone of education system on which our democratic polity professes to thrive.”
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One order, passed on July 10, said that the education department was involved in misappropriating grants for schools and colleges, helping organise mass cheating and copying at examination centres and withholding salaries of temporary teachers. The other order, passed on July 6, noted that the government was consistently violating rules governing the selection and appointment of teachers and principals, and said the court would examine on August 10 the education department’s response to its observations.
“The budgetary allocation made by [the] government for education is being misappropriated with the collusion of the management,…officials,…senior officers and the agents who manage the things…The facility of mass copying or [the] use of unfair means is being provided on [a] contractual basis,” a two-judge bench said on July 10. “Such things are becoming cancerous for our education system.”
The judges, Rajesh Kumar and Shamsher Bahadur Singh, also said that the court would appoint a panel to investigate the fraud and suggest mechanisms to curb corruption in education. They also directed the chief minister, Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, to cancel exemptions on property and water taxes that his government now grants to both aided and private educational schools and colleges.
The July 6 order was also passed by a two-judge bench, of Arun Tandon and Ashwani Kumar Mishra. “The entire education [system] in UP is being ruined because of incompetent persons being appointed to hold selection for the post of principals or lecturers,” they said in their order. “Has UP state become so bankrupt in academia or administrative officers that it has to appoint persons as chairman or members of the selection board who have made absolutely no contribution in the field of education?”
Old cases
The July 10 order was related to a case filed against the UP government more than ten years ago by Ram Veer Singh, a temporary teacher since 1989, asking the high court to direct the government to pay him his salary dues, which he claimed had been pending for several years. The judges dismissed his case, explaining that the department’s appointment of temporary teachers was itself illegal so they could not intervene in this matter.
At the same time, the affidavits and documents filed in relation to the case, revealed a larger malaise in the state’s education sector. The judges’ order said that the education department was involved in “foul play” with temporary teachers by not paying their meagre monthly salary of Rs 450 for up to 25 years and never making them permanent.
“[There are] irregularities right from the stage of granting aid to [an] institution, in appointment of teachers and staff and payment of salary. The grant amount provided to majority of funded educational institutions is higher than the money required by the institutions. This money drawn from the exchequer was shared between officials and other stake holders including teaching staff…The centres of examinations are being auctioned.”
The July 6 order came in response to a case filed in 2006 by Abhilasha Mishra who wanted the court to order the government to reconstitute a selection committee that was to interview her for the post of principal in a secondary school because its members did not have the qualifications as stipulated by the Intermediate Education Act 1921.
This law says that a member of such a committee must be a principal of a recognised college, a senior gazetted officer of the education department, a university professor, reader or senior lecturer of a college recognised by the university, or anyone who has made a valuable contribution in the field of education”
But the education department had chosen as the committee’s chair a junior teacher who was herself ineligible to apply for a post of senior teacher yet was empowered to choose a principal of a secondary school. One committee member worked as a clerk in the education department and another was a temporary teacher at a private school.
The state government, in a submission to the court, defended itself, saying that the panel’s composition was not improper because the rules stipulating the qualifications of members had been relaxed in 2008.
Whatever the rules, the judges expressed shock that “persons holding the post of clerks and subordinate teachers comprised the selection committees to interview academicians and professors for the vacant posts of principals and senior teachers.”
It ordered the government to dissolve the selection committee. “The court will not be a mute spectator. The state cannot be permitted to break the backbone of education system on which our democratic polity professes to thrive.”