`Osama bin Laden` applies for teaching job in India

London: A man in India who falsely named himself as dead terrorist ‘Osama bin Laden’ answered an advert for a teaching post at an Indian primary school last year, citing Bill Clinton as his father.

It did not take long for teachers to unravel his masquerade. He was one of hundreds of bizarre false names given by chancers apparently hoping to secure jobs in schools in Uttar Pradesh, in northern India, the Daily Mail reported. Perhaps the so-called “Abcdefgh” thought he would stand a better chance of teaching children English when he told India’s Ministry of Education that his father’s name was Xyz. Or maybe bow-wielding Hindu deity Jai Sri Ram thought he needed a break from heavenly duties to help boost the state’s religious education results. There was even one aspirant who gave his name as Farji, which translates as “fake”. His father’s name was given as Farji Singh. And unsurprisingly, all these applicants had spotless academic records to boot, with 100 percent marks in all exams. But rather than dismiss the applications out of hand, the state’s basic education department allotted them all registration numbers and even issued letters for counselling on their “fake” addresses. Such aspirants, shortlisted in the first list of candidates for the primary teachers’ job, have made the state’s basic education department’s recruitment drive a laughing stock. The candidates have clearly fudged every detail, from name and address to their exam records. Incredibly, the screening of the applications, filled online, found over 60 percent of candidates to be fake. For 72,825 vacant posts of primary teachers, more than 70 lakh applications were received of which only about 20 are believed to be genuine. Minister of state for basic education Waseem Ahmad said the department would sort out the errors. “This system of receiving online applications and sorting it out by software was meant for observing complete transparency. Maybe there are some problems but they will be sorted out in coming days,” he said. ANI