Page 22 - EducationWorld January 2023

Education News

is the best methodology to assess chil- taken a dim view of teacher recruit-
dren’s learning outcomes and provide ment scandals in the state and has
necessary remedial aid. It is pertinent frequently cancelled flawed TETs
to note that developed countries don’t and stayed recruitment. On Decem-
have annual exams for young children ber 6, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay
because they cause stress and anxi- said he would, “cancel the appoint-
ety. This is a depressing proposal and ment of 42,000 candidates who had
should be withdrawn. Instead, I advise passed TET 2014 if they are found to
the government to focus on training have been recruited illegally”. This
teachers to continuously assess chil- comment was made after WBBPE
dren and provide personalised reme- published the detailed scores of TET
dial education,” says Seetharamu. 2014 qualified candidates following
By all indications, the BJP’s educa- orders of the Calcutta high court. It
tion record of the past four years is un- was found that some candidates had
likely to be an election winning issue. scored 10.96 points out of the maxi-
Reshma Ravishanker (Bengaluru) mum 10 in a TET higher secondary
paper. WBBPE explained this away
WEST BENGAL as a technical error.
Government school teachers’ jobs
Banerjee’s Achilles are highly prized in this state which
heel suffered sustained capital flight government schools are suffering ex-
and de-industrialisation during 34
years (1977-2011) of uninterrupted
treme frustration. And with no fresh
ven as west bengal’s monu- rule by the CPM (Communist Party SLST (state level standard testing)
mental teachers’ recruitment of Marxist) where unemployment or TET exam held in the past five
Escandal in which cash moun- (7.6 million registered unemployed years, 1.2 million aspirant teachers
tains of Rs.100 crore were discovered youth) is pervasive and small and statewide who acquired B.Ed degrees
in the palatial home of actress Arpita medium scale industry salaries are have now become age-ineligible (age
Mukherjee, mistress of education rock-bottom. A government school upper limit: 40 years) to write TET/
minister Partha Chatterjee, is being teacher’s job with starting pay of SLST.
investigated by the CBI and Enforce- Rs.33,000 per month after imple- ith teacher recruitment at a
ment Directorate (ED), the West mentation of the Sixth Pay Commis- Wstandstill, it’s hardly surpris-
Bengal Board of Primary Education sion recommendations in 2020, is so ing that the latest (2021) Annual
(WBBPE) held a fresh Teachers’ highly prized that families desper- Status of Education Report of the
Eligibility Test (TET) on December ate for sons and daughters to be Pratham Education Foundation indi-
11. In the new TET held after an employed as teachers in government cates that the percentage of class VII
interregnum of five years, 690,931 schools often sell property and/or children in government schools who
college and university graduates take loans to pay upto Rs.20 lakh as cannot read and comprehend class
wrote the test to qualify for 11,000 bribes to government officials to land III textbooks has risen from 23.7
primary teachers’ positions in West these jobs. percent in 2014 to 31.7 percent in
Bengal’s 92,000 government-owned Therefore since 2015, disgruntled 2021. With primary-secondary edu-
and aided schools. TET 2022 of 150 TET failures and civil activists have cation experiencing severe pandemic
minutes duration was held in 1,460 filed a string of petitions, obtained disruption, West Bengal’s GER
exam centres statewide amid heavy ten recruitment and appointment (gross enrolment ratio) in higher
security and police presence. stay orders, CBI investigation and education has also experienced a
Although there are reports of more than 1,000 appointment orders steep fall. According to the All India
exam paper leakages, cheating, im- have been revoked even as educa- Survey on Higher Education (AISHE,
personation etc — which have been tion minister Chatterjee and former 2018), the state’s GER is 19.3 percent
a feature of previous TETs — at the WBBPE chairman Manik Bhattacha- against the national average of 27.1
time of writing, candidates are ap- rya have been arrested. percent.
prehensive about behind-the-scenes With recruitment for government Increasingly the blame for West
marking and paper substitution schools stymied since 2012 because Bengal’s teacher recruitment freeze
scams which have stymied teacher of a series of scams in recruitment is being placed at the door of the
recruitment since 2014. That’s tests and pending court cases, thou- state’s chief minister Mamata Baner-
because the Calcutta high court has sands of youth who aspire to teach in jee, now in her third term in office.

22 EDUCATIONWORLD JANUARY 2023