A 36-year-old woman, who attempted to join as graduate teacher in a government school in the district with a fake appointment order, has been arrested. Probe shows that three other ‘teachers’ had similarly joined different schools in the district in 2014.
Maheswari (36) of Irumbuli village, near Vandavasi, presented an appointment order to Banumathi, headmistress of Vandavasi Government Girls Higher Secondary School, on Monday and wanted to join duty. However, the headmistress became suspicious, as the school had not received any communication from the Chief Educational Officer’s office on the appointment. She rang up the officer’s office only to learn that there was no such appointment.
Arrested and grilled, Maheswari claimed that a gang prepared and sold the fake order to her.
Further, it came to light that three other teachers — C. Punithavathi of Government High School, Vadamanappakkam, S. Vijayakumar, Government High School, Melmattai Vinnamangalam, and C. Muthulakshmi, Government High School, Avaniyapuram, got their jobs in 2014 on the basis of fake appointment orders.
Chief Educational Officer Jayakumar told The Hindu that their appointment would be nullified and criminal action initiated against them. The entire salary paid to them would also be recovered.
Asking teaching candidates not to fall prey to conmen, he said all documents of existing teachers would be verified soon.
