Teacher trainees of NIOS offline D.El.Ed 2014-16 batch, who successfully completed the training in 2016, are yet to get their certificates due to the department misappropriating amount sanctioned for their training, RTI Initiative Nagaland has alleged.
According to RTI activities Odi Jamir and ST Yapang Lkr of RTI Initiative Nagaland, the issue came to light following an RTI reply by Nagaland Education Mission Society Samagra Shiksha (erstwhile SSA), which stated that Rs.1.74 lakh was sanctioned to SCERT. However, the duo said that SCERT could not provide detailed expenditures. They said this has hindered the release of second instalment.
They said that SCERT in a reply to RTI stated that D.El.Ed result was withheld owing to non-payment of second instalment of fees to NIOS by Sarva Shiksha Abhigyan (SSA). SCERT also replied that reason for non-payment was on account of SSA insisting that NIOS submit all supporting receipts and vouchers for the money already released. However, SCERT said NIOS expressed its inability to do so saying that the Utilization Certificate which they offered was their standard practice which all other states accepted and Nagaland could not be made an exception.
On filing another RTI, the Nagaland Education Mission Society Samagra Shiksha, Appellate Authority replied that SSA was the funding agency and any anomalies found in the Utilization Certificate submitted by the director SCERT Nagaland, may seek clarification from the implementing agency (SCERT) and not from erstwhile SSA. The duo stated that while the two departments (SCERT and SSA) were blaming each other, the Teacher trainees were made to suffer.
RTI activists expressed the view that either the department could not rightfully utilise the released amount for the D.El.Ed training or they could not produce the Utilization Certificate leading to withholding the second instalment.
However, they said that the department on the other hand has already collected Rs.6000 from each Teacher trainee as 2nd year course fee. In the light of the above, the RTI activists demanded that the department refund the money collected from the teacher trainees and at the same time issue their training certificates within 20 days, failing which, they would seek help from Lokayukta on the case.