With less than one per cent of teachers in the state clearing the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), questions are now being raised about the quality of teachers and fate of the children in these schools.
The TET result has rung an alarm bell among teachers and parents as the latter fear about the quality of teaching and the former are apprehensive of losing their job if they don’t clear the exam in five years.
M. Divya, a 26-year-old who scored 122 out of 150 marks said that the question paper was not so tough, questions tested teacher’s skills in child psychology and in-depth knowledge of the subject.
“As it is the first time teachers from Tamil Nadu are taking this test, we were not sure about the type of questions and the difficulty level it will be. Teachers’ Recruitment Board (TRB) has called me for an interview for a job in a government school”, she said.
Welcoming government’s initiative, Mr S. Santhanam, an administrator of a private matriculation school in the state said that the test would help schools to select teachers with better subject knowledge.
Mrs S. Srividhya, a parent said that in the past there used to be thousands of committed teachers with good subject knowledge and the skill set to handle a class of any given size but in the current situation teaching has become the least sought after job among youngsters.
“Private schools don’t pay teachers more than Rs7,000 to Rs10,000, so how do you expect qualified persons to take up teaching as a profession. It is ridiculous how these persons cleared B.Ed/M.Ed exmas as they lack basic subject knowledge. The whole education system needs a revamp as the TET result has opened up a Pandora’s box with lots of unanswered questions”, Mr. S. Sarathy, another parent said.
Parents also feel that the state government should ask all teachers in government schools to take up such competitive examination every year so that government would come to know the strength and weakness of teachers.
“We have lots of vacancies in schools (government and private) so we cannot sack these unqualified teachers. It is good that the union government made it mandatory for all teachers to take up eligibility test before joining an institution as lives of lakhs of children remain in their hands”, says K. Narayanan, another parent.