Over 2.8 lakh candidates wrote the teachers’ eligibility test (TET), one of the screening layers to appoint assistant teachers at government-aided primary schools (Classes I to V), on Sunday.
Many of them, however, wondered when recruitments will start, citing legal cases related to previous tests.
The test was held at 773 centres across the state, including five in Kolkata, and the turnout was around 90 per cent.
Around 3.09 lakh candidates had applied to write the examination.
The president of the Bengal primary education board, Gautam Paul, said they could not give any deadline for the publication of the results.
Last year’s TET was held on December 11. But the board has yet to conduct any recruitment exercise based on that examination.
“We cannot start the recruitment process as recruitment of candidates who cracked the TET held before last December is held up because of legal cases,” Paul said.
Long queues formed at the gates of the five centres in Kolkata since 9am.
The two-and-a-half-hour-long exam started at noon. The board had announced that the candidates would be allowed to enter the venues from 9.30am.
Many candidates wondered when the board would start recruitment.
“I wrote TET last year, too. I failed to crack the test by a few marks. This year I appeared again. However, many of the candidates who cracked the test have not been recruited as the board could not hold interviews. When will the board make recruitments?” said Mauparna Ghosh, who wrote Sunday’s test at a centre in Behala.
Last year, 6.9 lakh candidates had taken the test.
The headmaster of a school said: “The sharp drop in the number of examinees suggests the candidates are losing interest in writing the test because recruitment has been kept on hold. The state government has to find a way to ensure speedy recruitment.”
An official of the board said they are trying to publish the results as early as possible.
“We will first publish the model answers. Then we will invite challenges from those who appeared in the test. After that we will come up with the final answer keys, based on which the scripts will be assessed,” he said.
Many of the candidates appeared apprehensive about the evaluation system, considering that recruitments by the primary education board based on TETs held in 2015 and 2021 are mired in allegations of irregularities.