Nearly 80 per cent of the 85,000-odd candidates who had applied to write the State Eligibility Test (SET), for appointment as assistant professor in colleges and universities in West Bengal, appeared for the exam on Sunday.
The test, conducted by the West Bengal College Service Commission, was held at 108 centres in all 23 districts of the state, in adherence to the Covid protocol, said an official of the commission.
The examination was held in two slots — from 10.30am to 11.30am (Paper I-general paper) and from noon to 2pm (Paper II-subject paper).
Dipak Kar, chairman of the commission, said they were planning to upload the model answers in the last week of January and invite challenges from candidates to ensure transparency of the evaluation process.
“The candidates are advised to carefully go through the question papers for paper I and paper II and the answer keys that will be uploaded on the (commission’s) website. The candidates are also advised to match the questions from the series attempted by them in accordance with the jumbling formula, which, too, will be uploaded. The candidates may send their feedback to a designated email address within 10 days,” he said.
Under the jumbling formula, the questions are set in different orders so candidates sitting next to each other cannot consult.
An official of the commission said the feedback from the candidates would be sent to subject experts and accepted if the experts found them to be correct.
“The final answer keys will be drawn up after we go through the responses. Immediately after the publication of the results, the final answer keys will be uploaded so candidates can find out whether their challenges have been accepted,” he said.
The commission chairperson said cracking the SET does not make one eligible for getting appointed as a teacher straightaway.
“The candidates who will crack SET will be asked to apply for the job after the commission issues an advertisement detailing the vacant posts. Those who have cracked the NET (National Eligibility Test, conducted by the UGC) are also eligible to apply, along with those who have a PhD. The commission will then compute the academic scores of the applicants. The (shortlisted) candidates will be called for an interview,” said Kar.
The interview will be of 50 marks.
The final panel will be prepared based on an applicant’s performance in the written test and interview, as well as academic records.
Another official said a large number of college teachers retired in 2022, following the state government’s decision in 2019 to raise the retirement age from 62 to 65.
The retirement age of college teachers was first raised to 62 in 2017. The government further raised the retirement age to 65 years.