The wait still continues for candidates of four batches who have cleared the Tamil Nadu Teacher Eligibility Test (TNTET) to fill vacant teacher positions, stated a report in The New Indian Express.
The Teachers' Recruitment Board (TRB) as per the announcement of vacancies for the post of government school teachers, had conducted exams in 2013, 2017, 2019 and 2022, and around 1,10,000 candidates have cleared the exams so far.
Candidates who were selected for the eligibility test for both Second Grade Teacher (SGT) (Classes I to V) and Bachelor Teachers Assistant (BT) (Classes VI to X) in the last four tests are awaiting recruitment exams by the TRB to filter selected candidates for the vacancies.
A Jayabal (32), a candidate from Tiruchy who cleared the TET exam for BT in 2017 said the TRB had promised to notify them for the recruitment exam by September 2022. "No notifications were released," he said, "and the TRB assured that it would notify us in March 2023, but again nothing happened." Several candidates had quit their jobs to prepare for the recruitment exam but the TRB repeatedly going back on its announcements has pushed them into despair.
R Veeravel (39) who wrote the exam in 2022 after losing his job in a private company during the COVID-19 pandemic cleared the TET exam hoping to secure a teaching job. "In the last year, the state government had announced there would be an emergency recruitment for around 6,300 SGT vacancies and 3,200 BT vacancies," he added, and questioned why, if the government could appoint temporary teachers, it could not appoint eligible candidates who had cleared the exam.
Another candidate who chose to remain anonymous said she quit her job to prepare for the exam in September 2022, but as the TRB failed to conduct exams she lost the only source of income with which she supported her family of four.
M Kamaraj, a candidate with a mobility disorder who cleared the exam for BT in 2017, said, "Due to the delay in appointments many families are losing hope of getting a job. The recruitment exams should be conducted at the earliest and those who clear should be appointed immediately as they've already wasted several years," said Kamaraj.
An official at the TRB, said, "The notification for the SGT recruitment exam will be released soon, for BT it still remains a question mark."
