KATHMANDU-Nearly 1,800 public school teachers quit their job after the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) started investigating the authenticity of academic certificates of government school teachers since September last year.

According to a report of the Department of Education (DoE) that was submitted to the CIAA on Friday, 1,796 teachers resigned between September, 2014 and February, 2015.  Among the teachers who resigned during the period,  1,330 were from primary schools, 274 from lower secondary schools, and 192 were from secondary schools.  Palpa district witnessed the highest number of resignation with 93 teachers leaving the service followed by Tanahun (83), Gorkha (80), Sindhupalchok (67), and Surkhet (62). Seventy-three teachers quit their job at various schools inside Kathmandu Valley.

The anti-graft body had started the investigation after receiving the complaint that hundreds of government teachers had produced fake academic certificates to get the job,

Many of them may have resigned assuming that they would not face legal action if they quit their job, Khagendra Nepal, the DoE spokesperson, said. “However, it is also important to know that not all of them left the service because they had fake academic certificates. There are also those teachers who left their job on the grounds of their health, age and joining new professions.”

One DoE official claimed that many district education offices did not submit the details of some teachers, apparently due to the pressure from high level officials and politicians.

He said the education offices in Dadeldhura and Bardia districts have mentioned that there was not a single case of teacher quitting his or her job while the reports provided by the education offices in Mahottari, Dhanusha and Saptari have stated that only one teacher left the service from each of these districts.

“The fact is dozens of teachers have resigned from these districts, but the district education offices there did not provide the accurate data,” the official said.

The CIAA has already filed cases against dozens of teachers for faking their academic qualifications. A majority of them had produced the academic certificates from colleges in India, mainly from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

The clause 16 of the Prevention of Corruption Act (2002) has a provision mentioning that those who give false information with the intention of securing a position of public servant are liable to punishment of imprisonment for a term from six months to one year and a fine from Rs 10,000 to 20,000 depending on the degree of the offence.

-THE KATHMANDU POST