Teachers or cheaters? Four held in bid to aid students

VIJAYAWADA: On a day when students were negotiating a milestone that would shape their academic future, the overzealousness of four teachers brought to fore the rot in the education system.
On the first day of the SSC Board Examinations on Monday — being written by about 13 lakh students — four teachers from Krishna district took upon themselves the responsibility to ensure that their students perform well and make their alma mater proud.And how!
Posing as Flying Squad members, the teachers, belonging to Shantiniketan School in Kondapalli on the outskirts of Vijayawada, first went around five exam centres in and around Ibrahimpatnam in a hired car and found out the questions. Having managed that, their next move was to prepare the answers, proceed to the centre where their students were writing the exam and hand over the chits.
But the plan went kaput when some invigilators grew suspicious and brought the matter to the notice of mandal education officer George Rao. Acting swiftly, Rao approached the police who intercepted the vehicle as the teachers were heading towards the designated exam centre and nabbed all four teachers and also a fifth man, allegedly the mastermind. But in the ensuing melee, one of the teachers managed to escape.
The arrested four — ringleader M Prasanna Kumar and the three teachers, Chennaiah, Palla Raju, Harsha Kumar — are cooling their heels behind bars. The teacher who managed give cops the slip was identified as Rajesh. Criminal charges were booked against all the five and a hunt launched for Rajesh.
During interrogation, Prasanna claimed that he was working as a junior scientist at Isro and showed some documents to prove the same. And when cops quizzed the teachers, they had only one answer: “We did this only to bail out our students.” Unfortunately, its they who now need to be bailed out!