Patna: The education department has embarrassed itself in the process of honouring physicist H.C. Verma with the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Shiksha Puruskar.

Verma taught physics at Patna Science College for 15 years from 1979 to 1994, but the citation for the award says Verma taught for four years, 1980 to 1984.

The single-page citation prepared by the education department was distributed among guests on the dais, journalists and the audience at the Education Day function held at SK Memorial Hall on Saturday. Chief minister Nitish Kumar, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, education minister Krishnanandan Prasad Verma and a large number of education department officials were present at the event.

Shankar Kumar, assistant professor of physics at Patna University who knows Verma for three decades, said: "In 1984 when I joined Patna Science College as Intermediate student, Professor Verma was teaching us and continued teaching till 1994. When I joined Patna University in 2003 as assistant professor, the senior teachers informed us that Verma left PU in 1994 and joined IIT Kanpur."

Verma's CV also mentions he served as lecturer in physics from 1979-87 and reader in physics from 1987-94.

A senior education department official said many were shocked at the felicitation event: "Many IAS officers on the dais, when they noticed the mistake, were shocked. These IAS officers had studied from Verma at Patna University. When asked about the mistake, Vinodanand Jha, director of mass education at the department, said he had taken the information from the Internet."

Jha, however, told The Telegraph that it was a typo: "1994 has been typed as 1984."

The Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Shiksha Puruskar, a top state award for contribution in education instituted in 2007, includes Rs 2.5 lakh apart from the citation.