Thousands of teachers may lose jobs if passed Maha TET by illegal means; certificate of 23 K teachers being verified

Lokmat News Network

Aurangabad, Jan 5:

Thousands of primary schools teachers will lose jobs across the State if they have passed Maharashtra Teacher Eligibility Test (MahaTET) through illegal means.

It may be noted that the State Government made passing the eligibility test compulsory for school teachers’ jobs with the implementation of the Right to Education Act. The Maharashtra State Council of Examination (MSCE) conducted the examination seven times since February 2013. Nearly 2.50 lakh to 3 lakh students take TET while only four to six per cent only qualify because of its difficulty level.

Those who joined the service on or after February 13, 2013, need to qualify the test at any cost to be on duty. Top officers of the education department were aware of the low pass percentage in the examination. Many officers and their agents collected money from thousands of candidates to make them eligible for the teachers by tampering with the test result and passing them. The officers made changes in answer books or just tempered with marks memo to declare the candidates qualified.

Box

23 K joined service after 2013

Around 21 lakh candidates appeared for the examination between 2013 and 2020 while nearly 87,000 qualified it. During the probe, police found officers collected money and tampered with the actual result of MahaTET- 2020 candidates to pass them. Around 23,000 teachers have joined the teaching job  since when the test was made mandatory.

Box

Edn officers, dy directors asked to submit teachers certificates for verification

Commissioner of MSCE held a meeting online meeting of divisional education deputy directors, education officers and administrative officers of local self-Governing bodies in the State on Tuesday informing them to submit the TET certificates of teachers for verification. Deputy commissioner of MSCE Shaileja Darade issued a letter to all the officers last evening for the submission of the certificate. Certificate of teacher will be verified if any certificate is found tampered in the records seized from arrested top officers of the Education Department, he or she will lose the job.

Box

Agents still moving free

A group of teachers told this newspaper that all the officers and their agents should be arrested. Those who obtained passed certificates of the examination should be removed from the job for using unethical ways to get the jobs. They said that taking action against some officers will not be proved fruitful.

Box

Take concrete steps to prevent such incidents

Commenting on this, State unit secretary of All Indian Urdu Shikshask Sangh Sajid Nisar Ahmed said that the Government should examine all the forged certificates and should not give undue trouble to those who passed the TET honestly. He said that strict action should be taken against those who are guilty.

“The agents through whom this work has been done should be searched through a special investigation. The government should take concrete steps to prevent such incidents from happening in future. We demand that bogus private agency should not be given a contract for conducting the test,” he added.