Phiringia: As bizarre as it might sound, primary school teachers including headmasters have been drawing their salary without even going to schools for years together, reports said.
Instead of going to schools, they sit at home and manage their own business. Later, they manage to put their full attendance by bribing their senior officials and manage to withdraw their salary time to time.
While the senior officials of the education department have refuted the allegations, the village and school committee and guardians of children have expressed outrage and demanded a probe into the incident. Such incidents are mostly reported from remote villages where there is hardly any verification by seniors concerned, it was learnt.
In a glaring example is the condition of Badapaju Government Primary school under Salaguda panchayat of Phiringia block in Kandhamal district.
Accommodating around 23 students, the school has only one teacher for Class I to Class V. Half the month, the school headmaster Santosh Kumar Behera remains absent. However, he manages to withdraw his salary every month.
Moreover, he has been accused of bungling all the funds allotted for repair of the school building.
The matter came to the fore after a social worker Rohit Kanhar came across some villagers who narrated their ordeal.
When contacted, block education officer (BEO) Binod Bihari Digal said that he wasn’t unaware and as per attendance the HM was present in the school. We haven’t received any complaint against him. Necessary action will be taken if a complaint is submitted against him, Digal said.
On the other hand, the CRCC Kailash Chandra Kanhar said that he had informed the BEO about the HM and have submitted necessary documents showing his abseentism. However, no steps have been taken, Kanhar said.
Villagers complained that the BEO was helping the HM to withdraw the amount by taking bribe. Meanwhile, the HM did not bother to receive the call when our correspondent tried to contact him.
“I was not aware of such incident. I will appoint another senior officer to conduct a probe. Necessary steps will be taken after a report is submitted,” said the district education officer Bikash Chandra Pradhan.
PNN
