Chennai: The Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) has unearthed yet another major scam in which more than 200 candidates were found to have qualified with fake marks in the Tamil Nadu Teachers Eligibility Test (TNTET) 2017. Sources reveal the marks of these candidates were inflated by up to 100 marks to make them qualify in the test and enabled them to get selected for government teacher posts.
Following complaints from other candidates, the board re-scanned more than seven lakh answer scripts of TET Paper I and Paper II exam and uploaded the revised qualified candidates' list with the certificates on its website recently. The candidates are now pointing to irregularities in the TET exam marks as the names of hundreds of candidates who had qualified earlier are missing in the revised list.
“The re-scanning of original answer scripts revealed that over 200 candidates had qualified with fake marks as their marks had been inflated. The board has blacklisted all these candidates who were found to be involved in the scam,” sources said.
It appears that the candidates' marks were manipulated using separate OMR answer sheets. But, the board which had kept the original answer scripts was able to re-scan and verify the details. “Some of these candidates even visited the TRB premises to inquire about the change. When officials tried to verify their copy of OMR sheets with the original answer scripts, they vanished from the place, fearing arrest. There is a huge difference between original and their copy of OMR sheets as they have entirely different answers shaded,” sources said.
“The board has lodged a complaint against Datatec Methodex Private Limited, an outsourcing company which was contracted for scanning of OMR answer sheets for TET exam. The Central Crime Branch is enquiring into the case along with polytechnic lecturers scam,” they added.
The employees of the same company were arrested in connection with polytechnic lecturers scam uncovered last year. The TRB had cancelled its contract with the company following the scam and entered into an agreement with another company. Since the last scam was unearthed, the board has evolved a standard operating procedure (SOP) for the recruitment process and recruited a programmer to check the scanning and data processing at every level.“The state government should order an inquiry into the PG-TRB recruitment exam conducted last year as large scale manipulations are being suspected,” aspiring teachers demanded.As per the earlier recruitment method, the candidates who were qualified in TET will be recruited through the weightage marks system under which their academic performance will be graded. Under this system, the score in TET exam was very crucial to get the government teacher posts. Recently, the state government replaced the weightage marks system with a competitive exam for recruiting teachers. In p
olytechnic lecturers’ recruitment, it was found out that of 2,000 candidates who were called for certificate verification, 200 candidates had qualified with fake marks in the written exam. An enquiry by the TRB revealed that the employees of Datatec Methodex, which had scanned OMR answer sheets and processed the data, had manipulated marks in the written exam while entering the marks. The scamsters have collected bribes ranging from Rs 25 to Rs 30 lakh from the candidates. The CCB has arrested 15 persons in link with the scam including a headmaster and an EB staff.
