District Education Office Kathmandu has recommended to the Office of Controller of Examinations to cancel the examination of all subjects of the School Leaving Certificate of 97 fake examinees from 18 districts.

Baikuntha Aryal, District Education Officer, Kathmandu, said that a few days ago, they had recommended cancellation of exams of all subjects as fake examinees had been found, to the OCE.

He said the fake examinees were from Siddhi Manokamana Secondary School (SMSS) which is not located in the place where it was registered with DEO, Kathmandu. “According to our records, the school should be located at Ghattekulo, but there is no school as such in that particular location.”

Most of the examinees who had filled the SLC exam form had been found to have passed their Grade VIII exam in the year 2000, while their date of birth was 1991. This means the examinees passed their Grade VIII exams at the age of nine, which is impossible.

“If any student was so extraordinary as to pass their Grade VIII exam at the age of nine, why would he or she wait for such a long time to appear in the SLC. This raised doubt and we investigated and found that the students were fake,” he added.

According to the Education Act, only students who are 12 years old can appear for the Grade VIII exam. He further said they had already begun the process of scrapping the registration of SMSS for creating fake examinees without running classes and taking the exam of grade X.

The school was established in 1987 with pre-primary classes, but it started fielding examinees for the SLC exam from 1990. The school has been involved in creating fake examinees since 2005. The school had also not provided necessary documents to the DEO for a few years.

Of the total number of fake examinees, 65 were from Kathmandu, eight from Dang, seven from Gorkha, six from Chitwan, three from Makawanpur and one each from Sunsari and Nuwakot.

A five-member probe committee formed under the coordination of Guru Mainali, under secretary, DEO, Kathmandu had seized the forms of such students three months ago and had initiated a probe.

During investigation, the respective schools from where the fake examinees had stated they passed Grade VIII exam were not found. Most students had filled their SLC registration form 11 years after passing the Grade VIII exam.

The schools were found to be providing fake documents relating to audit report, flash report of the year, fee structure proposal, student enrollment, teachers’ profile, and many other information asked by the DEO.

Bil Bahadur Shrestha, school principal was found to have taken hefty amounts from students of 18 districts, namely Chitwan, Gorkha, Makawanpur, Kavre, Pyuthan, Dang, Lamjung, Dhading and other districts, to fill the SLC registration form.

Currently, Shrestha is out of contact. Aryal said the process of taking action had begun, but he could be charged with fraud very soon.

source: The Himalayan Times, 24 Feb 2013