With panchayat elections in Bengal not even an year away, the Mamata Banerjee Government has embarked upon charming the voters, this time by recruiting 30,000 teachers in Government-aided schools.
Candidates who have completed two years’ teachers’ training course and secured 50 percent or more marks in the Higher Secondary examinations will be allowed by the State Primary Education Board to sit for the Teachers’ Eligibility Test.
Disclosing the Government decision State Education Minister Partho Chatterjee said the Primary Education Board had been asked to “issue a notification after the Board office opens on October 9 stipulating the two conditions as per the guidelines mentioned by the Department of School Education.”
The candidates will be required to apply on line, PEB chairman Manik Bhattacharya said adding the date of examination would be declared on October 9.
The announcement made barely a few months before the State goes for the next year’s panchayat elections is seen as a part of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s vote bank politics, Opposition said.
“They have not been able to bring a single industry and the State’s job scenario is in complete mess. This Government has not been able to bring in a single industry. The Chief Minister had been trying to compensate her failure by engaging people in 100-days work but now she is complaining against inadequate fund dispersal from the Centre and so this new TET bluff is being given,” said senior CPI(M) leader Shyamal Chakrabarty.
Congress’ Badal Chakrabarty said the ‘proposed TET exams are but a ploy by the Government to win over voters and disgruntled party men who are planning to quit having failed to land jobs.”
The TET examinations had been riddled with allegations of corruption and nepotism for the past a few years with candidates complaining of rampant bribery and irregularity in the appointment processes. Earlier, TET exams held by the Trinamool Government had seen several law suits.