Guwahati: An Assam govt school teacher who allegedly used a fake Class X certificate to secure a job more than three decades ago was caught nine years before retirement after a transfer-related document check.Puspa Sahu (51) was appointed at Jaya Lower Primary School in Sonari, in the erstwhile undivided Sivasagar district, in 1994. She was transferred to Halwa Lower Primary School in Sapekhati, Charaideo district, in June this year.During verification of her service records, officials found discrepancies in the HSLC certificate she had submitted. The Assam State School Education Board (ASSEB), formerly the Board of Secondary Education, Assam, later informed the education authorities that no candidate with Sahu’s name and roll number appeared for the 1992 HSLC Special Examination.“The ASSEB was contacted recently, and the board informed us that no candidate by her name with the particular roll number appeared in the 1992 HSLC Special Examination in that year (1992),” an education department official said.According to the certificate, Sahu passed the exam in the third division. It records her date of birth as Sept 5, 1975, making her 51 and leaving nine years before retirement. At the time of her appointment, a Class X pass was the requisite qualification for a primary school teacher.The district elementary education officer has issued Sahu a show-cause notice and stopped her salary. Her reply will determine whether the case is referred to the state directorate of elementary education for further action.The department is also scrutinising records of other teachers suspected of using fraudulent documents in the early 1990s.
