After the embarrassing discovery of over 15 lakh fake students admitted in Bihar’s government schools, the second bad news to hit the state’s education sector is the utterly dismal performance of aspirants for teachers’ posts seen in a state-wide eligibility test.
Of the 26.8 lakh people with suitable basic qualifications, who appeared in the Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) for Bihar’s primary and upper primary schools, only 1.47 lakh — 5.52 per cent — managed to clear the test, posing a huge crisis before the state struggling to conform to the Right to Education norms. The results of the TET, announced by education minister P.K. Shahi on Monday, brought more worries for the primary school level, for which only 2.81 per cent of the 21.6 lakh aspirants cleared the tests.
With such poor performance baffling both education department officials and policy makers concerned about the quality of teaching, Mr Shahi said preference in appointment would be given to candidates who secured the highest percentage of marks in these tests conducted in December 2011 and January 2012. More TETs will be conducted in the coming months to fill vacancies in schools. Results of the Secondary Teachers’ Eligibility Test (STET), for which 4.8 lakh aspirants appeared, are likely to be announced in a week. Even as these new teachers will be appointed in Bihar’s schools in the next three months, the state education department will continue its programme of verification of the alleged fake admissions in the schools. Over 15 lakh students enrolled in Bihar’s 3,323 government schools have been found to have never attended classes.