Chandigarh, March 5: Following the beginning of the process for disaffiliation of six schools that were found indulging in dummy admissions to facilitate mass copying, the Punjab School Education Board is now probing over 25 institutions for similar practices. The probe is being conducted by the Patti Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Surinder Singh.
Confirming the development, a senior officer said: “The education system in the border belt (Tarn Taran, Valtoha and Khemkaran) is in a mess. Besides helping students from outstation in copying, schools are enrolling children who never attend classes. They only come here during examinations.”
The officer said: “Since science students cannot appear as private candidates, many coaching academies from the state and even Chandigarh get their students enrolled in these schools.”
The institutes where the disaffiliation process has started are United Senior Secondary School, Sri Bala Ji Senior Secondary School and Gurukul Public School, all in Khemkaran; Hari Singh Nalua Public School, Poonian; Sant Sipahi Public School, Thatha; and Shaheed Bhagat Singh School, Valtoha.
Krishan Kumar, Secretary, School Education, is learnt to have initiated action against teachers and other staff of the department after a surprise checking last week when he detected mass copying.
The police are also learnt to be working independently on the issue, particularly after videos of people claiming that they paid Rs 20,000-Rs 50,000 to “touts” for such admissions and copying went viral. More than 100 centres in the area have been declared “highly sensitive”.
Source Tribune India
