BENGALURU: The Department of Public instruction has made a shocking discovery that up to one-eighth of the total number of students taking the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination could be ghost students who exist only on paper. A total of 8 lakh students are taking the SSLC exam this year.
The department made the discovery that anywhere between 50,000 and 1 lakh students from state aided schools were ‘ghost students’ when it linked the Students Achievement Tracking System (SATS) with the ongoing SSLC examination registration process.”
This time while registering for SSLC exams we got to know about the students who were on rolls, but the schools were unable to send their details. Even in the SATS, there is no information available about those students,” a source from the department said.
As per information from the department, ghost students are created by the aided schools to avail certain benefits from the state government. “If there are no students, the government will not give them grants and teachers, too, will lose their jobs. Realising this, aided schools in the state are doing this, and even the department was unable to get hold of it,” said an official.
It apparently is a simple method to calculate ghost students using SATS (see box). “If we look at the total number of registered candidates for SSLC exams and the total number of those who appeared for the exams, the difference will give the estimated number of ghost students. Because not all 1 lakh or 50,000 students will be ill and absent at the exams,” the official explained.D Shashikumar, General Secretary, Associated Management of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka, said, “It’s a big scam! The department must conduct a detailed inquiry into the issue. It should not be ignored as the schools are getting benefits from the government like uniforms, cycles, shoes, socks, mid day meal etc..”