Another teacher suspended for malpractice

TIRUVANNAMALAI: The district administration has suspended another government school teacher and has asked a senior official in the education department to go on compulsory leave in connection with the organised copying during the class X Mathematics examination in Mount St Joseph Matriculation Higher Secondary School recently.Following a complaint against the teachers, Collector Anshul Mishra, who conducted a surprise inspection on Monday, caught seven persons, including the supervisor, invigilators and non-teaching staff members of the school red-handed for circulating photocopies of answers to the students. An inquiry into the incident exposed the involvement of a few officials of the education department in the malpractice. “The Collector has sent a letter to the Directorate of School Education to take severe action against the school administration and also some education department officials,” said a senior source from the district administration. The Collector has also directed the education department to ask Personal Assistant (PA) of Chief Education Officer (CEO) G Mohan to go on compulsory leave for his alleged role in the incident, he added.Thanga Murugan, a teacher in Shanmuga Industries Government Higher Secondary School, has been suspended for trying to communicate with one of the invigilators, Senthil Kumar, over phone to help one of the students in the examination. It was learnt that Mohan’s son was appearing for the public examination in the school and he tried to help him.Besides this, sources said that children of several VIPs, government officials and politicians were studying in the school and circulating answers to these students during public examinations here was not new. The school administration has been indulging in such illegal activities for the last few years to secure district level ranks and achieve good percentage in the public examination, they added. A senior official in the Directorate of School Education, said that the department will conduct an enquiry into the incident and take appropriate action against the errant officials.