A Head Teacher with the Cross River State Universal Basic Education Board on Grade Level 13 who used fake certificate to gain employment has been demoted to the post of a gateman on Grade Level 04.

The Head Teacher, including 758 others, were sent to lower grade levels for using fake certificates to gain employment.

Chairman of SUBEB, Calabar division, Dr. Stephen Odey, said that over 758 teachers with fake certificates and 700 ghost teachers were uncovered during a recent screening by the board across the state.

He said: “We got a lot of petitions from stakeholders intimating us about the presence of teachers in the system who are using fake certificates and we had to embark on a screening of the teachers across the state and what we saw was marvellous.”

According to him, the teachers were not retrenched but demoted because of the fear of increase in crime rates.

“No punitive measures apart from demotions and suspensions, would be applied on the culprits. Measures have been put in place to ensure that recruitment into the state teaching service is devoid of malpractices and fake certificate syndrome as in the past.

“If we sack all the teachers with fake certificates, the crime rate in the state will increase and also the governor of the state believes that there should be food on the table of everyone in the state.

“So we had to mete out justice with mercy by only demoting them, which is quite traumatising.”

He added that those with original certificates are being promoted, while some who were employed as security men and caregivers, but have acquired additional qualifications, have been redeployed as class teachers. (The AUTHORITY)

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