Kottayam: Many teachers of public schools in the state were added in a WhatsApp group to collect curriculum information by some vested interests. Generally, associations of teachers form such groups to share learning topics. So mistaking it for that method, the teachers joined en masse.

Although public education discussions are not secret, it is mysterious that such a group was formed by people outside the teaching world. After the controversy that the Onam exams question papers were exact copies of what had appeared on a YouTube channel, there were attempts on the part of the teaching community to clean up several WhatsApp groups. Only then this group caught attention. When they inquired about the admin, it was found that this was a private account not related to public education.

The account holder had started groups for all classes from LP Classes to Higher Secondary. After some familiar teachers were first added, the groups expanded as they added others. Hundreds of teachers became members of these groups. When the Onam exam controversy broke out, the trainers and senior teachers of the Block Resource Coordinators demanded answers from the admins of the groups.  When there was no response, they tried to call the admins directly. However, nobody picked up the calls. They even tried to meet the person, but in vain. Finally the admin came to the group and explained that he was a tuition teacher and had created groups to study the subjects.

The admin had even asked the group to share information before every cluster meeting. The teaching module was also widely shared among these groups. Such groups also shared the prepared model question papers of various subjects.