BHAKTAPUR: The Department of Education is all set to prepare a database of students with their photos in a bid to monitor grants released in the name of ‘fake students’ by community schools across the country.

The database will be launched from the new fiscal year. The move comes after community schools were found embezzling grants from district education offices by presenting fake data of students. “The database will help maintain accurate number of students with photos and also curb financial irregularities in schools,” said Laba Deo Awasthi, Director General, DoE, today.

Many schools have been found to be presenting fake data of students in the beginning of academic session and taking grants throughout the year. Such activities are rampant in Bara, Parsa, Mahottari, Siraha, Sarlahi and Saptari among other districts in Tarai. Some Tarai districts in the border areas say they are bringing students from India that’s why the enrollment rate is higher in their districts. But according to education experts, they bring kids from outside the country and admit them in their schools for a few days until they receive the grants. The kids are returned to their villages later.

From the coming fiscal, all community schools across the country will have to put the names of students with their photos in the software so that DoE could have a direct access to it.

“The process might look a bit inconvenient at first. But if implemented properly, it will give an accurate figure of students,” he said. “It will also help identify fake students and curb the misuse of government grants allocated for genuine students.” The database will also bring uniformity in the data of students presented by schools and the DoE, he added. DoE said it will begin collecting data of students from the Central Development Region due to greater access of computer in this region.

According to the DEO, the schools which are located in remote places where it is difficult to install the compute software will have to fill forms with the personal details of students.

source: the himalayan times,1 july 2014