The 2014 TET-qualified candidates who have been staging a dharna demanding jobs said the government should pay attention to their demand as well since the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) is conducting the Teachers Eligibility Test in the state on Sunday for the first time in five years.
For the past 116 days, these candidates have been on a dharna.
One of the candidates who was protesting stated, “We already passed TET. The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) states that after passing the TET, candidates are qualified for employment in schools. The state government was also ordered by the Supreme Court to enrol us in schools, but that did not happen. We should be absorbed even though we are not opposed to the holding of TET.
“Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also promised 20,000 TET-passed candidates will be passed but were not,” he continued. On the other hand, many individuals received employment even without taking an exam. Written exams carry the least weight in this TET, while interviews carry the most. There is potential for fraud and corruption.
Another protester, Subodh Sarkar (46), stated, “I was 38 years old in 2014 when we took the Teachers Eligibility Test. But due to corruption, I was not hired. Our sole requirement is that we were qualified at the time and successfully completed the test. However, the government is merely postponing because it is unwilling to offer us jobs.
A TET participant from 2014, Mahinur Rahman (age 46), stated, “It is obvious that the state government is preoccupied with safeguarding individuals who obtained jobs illegally by denying us of our due. The new TET is fine in my book. However, it can be revealed in a few years that this TET was done dishonestly.
Since the school jobs scam came to light, the state’s Trinamool Congress administration has been in trouble.The Enforcement Directorate (ED) and then the CBI detained former education minister Partha Chatterjee and his close friend Arpita Mukherjee in connection with this. During raids, about Rs 50 crore was found in two of Mukherjee’s apartments. According to the two central agencies, numerous people allegedly received work in schools through the payment of bribes. Following the Calcutta High Court’s directives, more than 300 teachers lost their employment.