Assam TET-19 qualified candidates demand appointment before Assembly election

LAKHIMPUR: The Assam Teacher Eligibility Test-2019 (ATET-19) qualified unlisted candidates (Upper Primary and Lower Primary schools) have demanded their appointment before the ensuing Assembly election. Assam Prathamik TET-2019 Urtirna Samiti, the common forum of the ATET-19 qualified candidates, raised this demand in a press meet held at North Lakhimpur Press Club on Wednesday.

Notably, TET for the second time in the State was held as per order issued by the Gauhati High Court and under the initiative taken by the Education Depart-ment on November 10, 2019. As per result declared on December 30 and December 31 in 2019, a total of 34,210 candidates, 15,304 in Upper Primary and 18,906 in Lower Primary level, out of 3,76,000 candidates cleared the test across the State. But these TET qualified candidates have not been appointed in the last six months.

Addressing the press meet, the vice-president and the secretary of the organization, Mukheswar Chutiya and Milan Sarmah respectively, said that a process was underway for the appointment of 9,635 teachers under elementary education as per an advertisement published in 2018.

"At present, the first, second and third merit lists have been published and the enlisted candidates have been called for verification. But the fresh candidates (ATET-19 qualified) have been deprived of the benefit of being appointed in those posts due to the procedure adopted with regard to the advertisement. The published merit lists have shown that priority for appointment to those posts has been given to the CTET qualified candidates instead of ATET-19 qualified candidates, as a result of which candidates coming from other States are at the advantage of being appointed in our State. This issue has caused extreme resentment among the ATET-19 qualified candidates," said Milan Sarmah in the press meet.

Notably, according to the guidelines of CTET certificate mentioned in 7(i) and 7(ii), the CTET shall apply to the schools of the Central Government (KVS, NVS, Central Tibetan Schools) and schools under the administrative control of UTs of Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Andaman and Nicobar Islands and NCT of Delhi. A State Government can also consider the CTET if it decides not to conduct the state TET.

Quoting these CTET norms of appointment, the vice-president and the secretary of the organization appealed to the Education Minister of the State to give priority to ATET-19 qualified candidates with regard to appointment to those posts. They clarified that they had not opposed the CTET qualified candidates but requested the Education Minister to mitigate the burning unemployment problem of the State by appointing the eligible TET qualified candidates of the State. They added that there would be no value of Assam TET unless priority was given to the local candidates while conducting appointment to the posts of teachers.

In connection with the issue, the president and the secretary of the organization demanded the Education Minister and the State Government to appoint all the ATET-19 qualified candidates even on contractual basis before the forthcoming assembly election. They also demanded to appoint teachers in the schools of the State according to the PTR (Pupil-Teacher Ratio) recommended by Right to Education Act. Notably, there are a number of schools in the State which are yet to fulfill the PTR norm.

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