Chennai: In a gross waste of money to the public exchequer, the Teachers Recruitment Board has recalled over 10 lakh Teacher Eligibility Test (Tet) applications ready for distribution due to an 'error' in the prospectus. Though all the applications have been replaced with new ones, the recalling of all applications has raised eyebrows as the board could have issued a corrigendum for the 'error'.
"The prospectus for paper II had mistakenly included subjects like commerce, economics and political science in the eligibility criteria. So as per the instructions, we have recalled the applications," officials said.
To write the Teacher Eligibility Test paper II the candidates must have bachelor's degree with Tamil, English, Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Zoology and History and Geography as their major subjects in degree along with B.Ed.
Sources said that as per the high court order, candidates with commerce, political science and economics as majors could also write paper II of the eligibility test. So reportedly, all these subjects were included in the eligibility criteria.
Now, in the notification, the TRB has clearly said that candidates with above degrees or a degree with any one of the equivalent subjects alone can write paper II.
This issue may resurface during the exam as candidates with other degrees are expected to approach the court for relief. Educationist P.B. Prince Gajendrababu pointed out that even the CBSE has given clarifications regarding the number of attempts in Neet after it released the notification. "If there is anything wrong in the printed application, they can give a clarification at any time. It is a normal procedure. Printing lakhs of applications again is a waste of money," he said. The reprinting of applications has reduced the distribution of applications to only 17 days.
"Most teacher aspirants are employed in private schools. It is examination time and they may not get time to buy or fill the applications. So the board should extend application sales to at least another two weeks," he said.
Tet application sales begin
Sales of the Teacher Eligibility Test applications began on Monday from over 700 centres throughout the state. "In each block, we have set up two centres for distributing Tet applications. The bigger districts will have more centres," officials said.
The eligibility test is conducted after three years. This year more than 10 lakh candidates are expected to write the exam. Only a few applications sold on the first day. "In Chennai, around 5,000 applications were sold on the first day," officials said.
The applications will be distributed till March 22. The Tet paper I exam will be conducted on April 29 and paper II exam on April 30. The last date to submit the application form is March 23.
