Similar, is the case with the appointment of thousands––may be a couple of lakhs––para-teachers under the centrally-sponsored Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. When the recruitment of under-qualified and barely literate teachers––many of whom could hardly spell their name in English––were going on the media was busy praising the state government, not knowing that similarly exercise was made in 2002 too.

Even the rampant corruption in their appointment and murder of dozens of mukhiyas could not make big news in the state.

But when the state government started taking action against some of these ignorant and illiterate teachers the media went gaga once again praising it for its war against corruption. Hardly anyone in the mainstream media in the state asked as to who, if not the present state government, is responsible for the appointment of such teachers and thus played a cruel joke with the future of the children.

Though till now half a million fake admissions have been detected in 11 districts, the overall figure of the 38 districts may run into a couple of millions. But this is the present situation. What about lakhs of students who passed out from the schools in the last three or four years, that is, since these schemes have been implemented. How many were ghost-students in them? And how will the government recover the amount from them, as they have already left the school, and take punitive action against their parents.

The problem with this scam is that the state government appears to be in a bind. If it really takes action against all the parents involved in the racket and recovers the amount it is likely to have a widespread political as well as social ramifications.

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