Some candidates, who are set to appear the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), have blown the lid off a huge scam surfaced in the name of admission in Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed) course in Assam’s Lakhimpur district.
The D.El.Ed course is being offered under Open Distance Learning (ODL) in various teacher training institutes of Lakhimpur district.
“The institutes which started the D.El.Ed under ODL mode from May 2017 closed the programme since March 31 this year,” said sources.
“But some teacher training institutes of the district continued to enrol students in the same programme of studies in back dates against huge amount of fees,” added sources.
Sources further claimed, “The institutes, which are offering the course, have been collecting Rs 20,000 as fees from candidates for admission in back dates by issuing receipts of only Rs 12,000.”
The Basic Training Centre (BTC) Azad near North Lakhimpur town, the district headquarters of Lakhimpur, is one such training institute where such scam has allegedly taken place.
Apart from the BTC Azad, the Normal School at Dhakuwakhona, Madhya Subansiri College, Oboniri College, KKD College, NCD College and Mother Teresa School — all under Dhakuwakhona sub-division – are also under scanner for the alleged admission scam of back dated entry to the D.El.Ed course under ODL mode.
“The scam also includes some private and government schools where the heads of the institutes have allegedly collected an amount of Rs 5,000 from each candidate for issuing experience certificates,” sources said.
Heads of many government institutes in Lakhimpur district have allegedly been taking money in exchange of providing the District Information System for Education (DISE) Code of their institutes for candidates for the D.El.Ed programme.
“The institutes offering D.El.Ed course in Dhakuwakhona are charging fees from Rs 12,000 to Rs 20,000 for back dated admissions,” alleged one TET aspirant on condition of anonymity.
“Many money receipts issued by such institutes also do not have the District Information System for Education (DISE) Code,” the TET aspirant said.
This has attracted TET aspirants from across the state to throng North Lakhimpur and Dhakuwakhona to collect D.El.Ed certificates with back dated admissions following the latest advertisement requiring the qualification as mandatory to appear in the teacher eligibility examination.
It may be recalled that the Lakhimpur district administration has set up an enquiry following allegations of irregularities levelled against BTC Azad in June this year.
The enquiry conducted by an additional deputy commissioner ADC and the principal of the District Institute for Education and Training (DIET), Lakhimpur found irregularities in the admission process of D.El.Ed programme in the institute.
Amidst these allegations, the director of the State Council of Education Research and Training suspended the coordinator of BTC Azad, Lakhimpur from his services on Friday.
The suspended coordinator of BTC Azad, Lakhimpur is Bipul Borah.
Reacting to the suspension, the president of All Assam Unemployed Association, Jibon Rajkhowa said, “We demand the arrest of Bipul Borah for his involvement in the admission scam.”
“The BTC Azad is playing foul with the unemployed youths of the state and strong action is to be initiated,” added Rajkhowa.