The principal of Taipei County’s Yonghe Junior High School alleged yesterday that one of his teachers had embezzled scholarship money that was earmarked for 1,200 students.
Ho Chuan-li (侯全利), the principal, told reporters that teacher Wang Hsiang-feng (王祥鳳) had admitted that during her 18 months as the school’s registrar section chief, she had embezzled about NT$600,000 (US$18,500) that was supposed to be given to students with good academic performance.
“She admitted that she forged [students’ signatures] and embezzled [the money],” Ho said.
“The next day, a teachers’ association representative and I accompanied her to the Banciao Prosecutors’ Office, where she turned herself in,” the principal said.
The school, which has 132 classes, usually awards students who rank first, second and third place in their class with NT$500 each. However, no students had received any scholarship money for three semesters.
It was discovered that Wang, 30, was embezzling the money when she handed over registry books to another teacher, the school said.
Before that, she had allegedly forged 1,200 students’ signatures and pocketed the money for three consecutive semesters, the school found.
The principal told reporters that Wang said she embezzled the funds because her family needed money. She has since been dismissed for violating the Teacher’s Act (教師法).
Ho said he had apologized to the director-general of the county’s Education Bureau and offered to resign over his failure to supervise a subordinate.
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