A renowned educationist‚ Tirth Raj Khaniya‚ has made it to the top of his field and enjoyed political patronage. What people outside the education sector don't know is the case of plagiarism‚ which caused embarrassment to the Nepal English Language Teachers' Association and the editorial team of its journal‚ NELTA‚ in 2010.

Khaniya lifted part of an article‚ including its conclusion‚ from a work of Ferit Kilickaya‚ an English Teacher at the Middle East Technical University‚ Ankara‚ and published it as his article -- Use of authentic materials in EFL classrooms -- in 2006 without giving due credit to Kilickaya. Kilickaya's article -- Authentic Materials and Cultural Content in EFL Classrooms -- was published in 2004.

Kilickaya discovered this in 2010‚ when Tribhuvan University’s online portal publishing journals posted NELTA’s journals‚ and complained to the NELTA in an email. "NELTA forwarded the mail to Khaniya seeking clarifications‚" sources quoted NELTA officials as saying. Asked about the article‚ however‚ chief editor of the journal‚ Jai Raj Awasthi‚ said he has no idea. “My editorial team is only responsible for the articles published in the NELTA journal after 2009 as we started peer review of the articles by two scholars thereafter.”He said authors themselves are accountable for the articles published before 2009.

NELTA‚ which started publishing the journal in 1996‚ not only removed the article from the online portal‚ but also withdrew the hard copies from its library and storage. NELTA officials told this daily on condition of anonymity that the edition was missing and said they were unaware of it. A copy of the journal obtained by THT from a personal collection‚ however‚ reveals whole paragraphs copied and pasted from Kilickaya's article without any change other than formatting.

Khaniya's article was published in the journal (Volume 11‚ Number 1-2) of Nepal English Language Teachers' Association (NELTA) in 2006.

Several academicians associated with the Tribhuvan University and other universities said they had no knowledge of the episode‚ while some spoke about it‚ only on condition of anonymity.

Khaniya is currently professor at the TU's Central Department of Education‚ Kirtipur. He was head of the department from 2004 to 2006.

Talking to this daily over the phone‚ Khaniya said he had forgotten to give reference to Kilickaya’s article. “I have included the ‘reference’ in the second edition of the book ‘Examination for Enhanced Learning’‚ which is coming within a week‚” added Khaniya. He was director of Basic and Primary Education Project under the Ministry of Education from 1992 to 1995 and was first vice-chairman of the Higher Secondary Education Board from 1995 to 2000. He was appointed member of the National Planning Commission for 2009-2011.

Besides‚ he was founding-president of the NELTA and founder-member of the Linguistics Society of Nepal. He has authored several series of school's reference materials of English Language Teaching and Learning.

Khaniya achieved master's degree from the TU in English Education and PhD in applied linguistics from the University of Edinburgh‚ UK.

He did post-doctoral research in Education under the Fulbright Programme at the George Washington University‚ Washington‚ DC.

source: The Himalayan Times,16 Feb 2013