Amid allegations of fake certificates furnished by several teachers of Government schools, the State Government has decided to scan the certificates of all teachers recruited in the past three years. 

This decision was taken at a high-level meeting held under the chairmanship of Development Commissioner PK Jena on Monday. School and Mass Education Principal Secretary Bishnupada Sethi along with senior officers of the department attended the meeting.

The certificates and documents of all teachers recruited in Government-run schools would be examined. The department would write to the concerned universities and Governments of other States to verify the certificates. If required, special officers would be sent to outside-Odisha universities, officials said.

Further, it was decided that the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) and the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) would adopt the Digilocker system from the current academic year.

The IT Department would be asked for digitisation of all certificates issued by the BSE and the CHSE so that fake certificate problems would not arise in future, the officials said.

The OSEPA Director was asked to prepare a complete database of all teachers. All the fake certificate cases would be examined on a priority basis; and if any teacher is found guilty, FIR would be lodged against him/her and action would be taken to recover the entire salary he/she had drawn during the service period.

Jena has directed to simplify the procedure to issue NOC to the CBSE schools. If the concerned school submits wrong information while seeking NOC, the NOC would be withdrawn for three years.

Moreover, it was decided to make proper analysis of school dropouts after the HSC examination and further strengthen the teachers’ training programmes. At least one Government school in each district would be selected to provide teaching in English medium, the officials informed.