Assam Education Department Uncovers Over 500,000 Fake Student Enrollments

Guwahati: The Assam education department has detected more than five lakh fake enrolment of students in its schools by introducing the Shiksha Setu App.

Informing that the App has brought several other revolutionary changes in the school education system like monitoring the presence of teachers in the school centrally, authoritative sources in the state education department said that some schools were showing an inflated number of students fearing that teachers may be transferred to other schools if enrolment was less.

However, it was not the only reason for showing inflated enrolment, official sources said pointing out that the government provides mid-day meals, uniforms, textbooks, sports kits, etc for the school students and a handful of principals, in collusion with the school management committees, inflated the number of students to siphon off government funds.

Admitting that this practice was going on for quite some time and in some areas, people of localities even held elections to the posts of management committees, official sources said that the launching of the Shiksha Setu App detected such bogus enrolments and so far more than five lakh fake students have been identified and the number can go higher.

Pointing out that the state has more than 45,000 schools and over two lakh teachers, the Education Department couldn't keep a tab on the presence of teachers, official sources said that after the launching of the App, the teachers have to mark their presence digitally and they have to be present in schools.

Officials also said that the school dropout rates in some areas are also very high, which is an area of concern but now through the App, the government can identify the schools where the dropout rate is high and can take corrective steps.

The App also helped the government to start the process of rationalisation of teachers based on the number of students, while vacancies can be identified and the government can plan accordingly. Sources said that in the town areas, the number of teachers is higher than required, while the village areas have less number of teachers. The government has already started the process of rationalization of teachers, but the process will take some time.