Delhi tops in fake boards, univs

New Delhi: The national capital has the most number of bogus school education boards and universities in India, dishing out fake degrees and certificates to hundreds

New Delhi: The national capital has the most number of bogus school education boards and universities in India, dishing out fake degrees and certificates to hundreds of unsuspecting students each year.

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This is worrying considering the admission season is around the corner and thousands of students, especially those who fail to make the cut in popular Delhi colleges, will be looking for options.

The National Institute of Open Schooling, an approved education board under the Union human resource development (HRD) ministry, lists 47 fake boards on its website, of which 21 are in Delhi.

Of the 74 fake boards listed in the 2016 prospectus of the Indira Gandhi National Open University, 44 are in Delhi. Also, the Capital has the second-highest number of fake universities in the country, five out of 22, according to the University Grants Commission (UGC).

What’s even more disturbing is that the HRD ministry doesn’t maintain any data on fake boards. It said as much in reply to an RTI application by Hindustan Times.

“There is no central law or authority to define fake or unrecognised boards, but those boards that haven’t been recognised by state governments or the ministry of human resource development come under the category of fake board,” said advocate Ashok Aggarwal, who takes up education-related cases in the Delhi high court.

“So students passing from these boards don’t get admission in colleges and face an uncertain future.”