Unqualified East End teacher struck off after degree lies
A MAN who lied about having a degree to teach in two primary schools over a six year period has been struck off the register.
Nurul Ahmed landed himself teaching roles at Whitechapel’s Smithy Street Primary School from 2003 to 2005 and Limehouse’s Cayley Primary School from 2008 to 2009 by faking a Bachelor of Arts certificate from Queen Mary, University of London.
The audacious fraudster even managed to get himself a place on a graduate teaching programme at Cumbria University by lying about having a degree but he was found out and left the course after two days.
Mr Ahmed has been forbidden from registering as a teacher in both state-run and private schools, the General Teaching Council (GTC) decided on Monday.
Branding the case “serious”, GTC chair Zubair Khan said Mr Ahmed’s actions had “risked the reputation of the teaching profession”.
He added: “This is not a single incident but acts of dishonesty committed over a period of a number of years and a number of occasions.”
Mr Khan decided a suspension or another lighter sanction would not be appropriate because of the dishonesty on Mr Ahmed’s part.
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Mr Ahmed had also lied about his reasons for leaving Smithy Street Primary School where he worked as a teaching assistant.
He stated he had moved on because he had been offered another job when, in fact, he resigned after being suspended.
The board committee decided not to hold a hearing because Ahmed had admitted all the allegations.
Tower Hamlets council has a duty to inform the GTC of all disciplinary procedures involving staff in its schools.
A council spokesperson said: “While we do not provide our schools with an operational HR service, we ensure that we support them in providing the General Teaching Council with any information required following disciplinary investigations.
“We will continue to work with our schools to ensure that their HR processes and checks are up to date and stringent.”
A spokesperson for Cumbria University said: “A ‘degree certificate’ from one London institution was produced by the individual as evidence to Tower Hamlets Local Authority and a ‘degree certificate’ from another London institution was offered to the university, and it was our combined rigorous checking that discovered the initial fraud in October 2005, at the start of the training programme.
“As a result, this was picked up at a very early stage. [Mr Ahmed] left the programme within two days of discovery, after eventually admitting that both certificates were fraudulent.”
In two years’ time, Mr Ahmed can apply to be reinstated on the teaching register.
He would have to be fully qualified to apply.
