Bihar: ‘No decision to abolish teacher eligibility test’

PATNA: The state government has not taken any decision either on abolishing or not conducting the state-level teacher eligibility test (TET) for recruitment of schoolteachers, education minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary said on Wednesday.
Clarifying the misunderstanding prevailing in the minds of teacher aspirants over the conduct of the STET, the minister told this newspaper that the department is not conducting the TET for the time being only with a view to expediting early appointment of teachers in the sixth as well as seventh phase.

Choudhary said as per the existing provisions of the teachers’ recruitment regulations, a candidate qualifying either the TET conducted by the central government (CTET ) or the teacher eligibility test conducted by the Bihar government (BTET) is eligible to apply for a teacher’s post. Keeping in view the number of existing vacancies of schoolteachers, a good number of candidates qualifying both these tests are already available. Moreover, the government wants to complete the appointments in the sixth phase at the earliest and start the process of recruitment in the seventh phase, he said.
If the education department thinks of holding the state level eligibility test at the moment, the process of appointment of teachers in the seventh phase would be much delayed, affecting the academic progress of lakhs of schoolchildren.
The minister pointed out that a large number of students have been admitted in Class XI in different upgraded secondary schools this year even though there are not sufficient teachers there. Hence, it is the foremost duty of the department to appoint teachers against the vacant posts and ensure regular classes in newly started Class XI from the current academic session.
Choudhary said it is in this light that the department has decided to postpone any fresh eligibility test for some time. Candidates who have already qualified the eligibility tests conducted earlier are also demanding immediate appointment in the seventh phase. Hence, the government has decided that a need-based state-level TET would be conducted after reviewing the number of vacancies and qualified candidates after the the seventh phase recruitments. Therefore, the question of not holding BTET in future does not arise, the minister clarified.
Department sources said all the newly upgraded Plus2 schools where teaching of newly admitted Class XI students commenced a few months back are facing an uphill task in ensuring smooth conduct of classes in the absence of teachers. Most of these schools in the state have been created by upgrading the existing middle schools where teachers are not competent enough to engage the classes at higher secondary (classes XI and XII) level, they said.