Srinagar, May 16: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court made a teacher write a brief test in an open court to check his abilities but the examinee failed miserably, leading to a slew of directions to the state government for checking ‘‘tuck shops’’ in the education sector.
The direction came when Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar was hearing a petition challenging appointment of Mohammad Imran Khan as Rehbar-e-Taleem (education guide) in a school in south Kashmir.
The petitioner had alleged Khan’s certificates – issued by Board of Higher Secondary Education Delhi and Global Open University, Nagaland, were not recognised. The marks certificate issued to the respondent by the Board of Higher Secondary Education Delhi showed 74 per cent, 73 per cent and 66 per cent in Urdu, English and Maths respectively.
The court asked a senior counsel to give a simple line for translation from English into Urdu and vice-versa but the teacher failed to do it.
The teacher was then asked to write an essay on ‘cow’ in Urdu but he failed. He sought permission to write the essay outside the court room, which was granted but he again failed.
Khan then claimed he had better hold on Mathematics. The court asked another counsel to frame standard IV problem for the teacher to solve. And he failed again!
“In this situation, what would be the fate of the state has to be only visualised. The school going children ….would pass out as block heads,’’ the court observed. The court directed the government to constitute a panel which would look into degrees issued by unrecognized study centres.
The court also directed Commissioner Secretary Education to constitute a panel to ask the teachers who produce such degrees to sit in a screening test and ascertain if they are in a position to teach students and initiiate criminal proceedings against them.
‘‘The ReT teachers who fail in such a screening test, their certificates would require to be seized after affording opportunity of hearing to them. The authorities shall consider termination of their services after following principles of natural justice as same will be in the larger interests of the student community and society,” the court said. PTI
