Schools in Kerala remove 2 lakh ‘fake’ students

Thiruvananthapuram: The schools in the state have removed nearly two lakh ‘fake’ students from their records. The DPI had given time till Monday to remove the fake names.

He had also warned of strict action if the schools failed to comply with the direction.

The directive was following the detection of manipulation of student data during inspections conducted by the DPI office. 

False student data had been detected in Kadachalkuzhi SNUP  school, Balaramapuram and Kottukalkonam MCHSS school.

Following this, the education department issued an ultimatum to schools to furnish the actual student strength before October 27.

Manipulation was done either to retain the already approved teacher posts or increase the number of posts on the basis of student strength.

Following the ultimatum, 2100 aided schools admitted that they had manipulated the numbers of students.

The detection of discrepancies was a shocker to the department as it was felt that manipulation was difficult in case of UID-based head count as the students would undergo a biometric scanning of ten fingers and the iris for collecting the data.

The schools which admitted manipulation have been asked to upload the correct student strength before 5 p.m. on October 30 on the sampoorna software of the education department.

The print of the consolidated report should be submitted to the Assistant Education Officer  or District Education Officer before October 31, sources said.

The education department’s squads will conduct inspections from November onwards.

The loss incurred to the government on account of such wrongdoing will be recovered from teachers found guilty of misrepresenting the student strength even afterwards.