Has the state government misled the State Election Commission on issuance of the notification for conducting the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET)?
It appears so as the commission was not informed that the TET was a part of the process for recruitment of teachers by District Selection Committees (DSCs) as the marks scored in TET carry 20 per cent weightage in the selection of a teacher.
That means by conducting TET, the government has completed 20 per cent of teachers’ recruitment test.
But, according to the Election Commission guidelines, the government should not issue any recruitment notification and start the process of recruitment to any government jobs when the election model code of conduct is in force. The state election commission announced the panchayat raj election schedule on July 3 and the election code of conduct came into force on that day.
A week later, officials from the school education department met state election commission officials to get clearance for issuance of TET notification. They explained that TET had nothing to do with the teachers’ recruitment process and claimed
that it was only eligibility test. A group of Osmania University students led by a teacher aspirant, K Vishal Rao, met joint director of panchayat raj P Satyanarayana Reddy who has been drafted by the AP State Election Commission for the conduct of panchayat elections and submitted a memorandum to him alleging that the state government had violated the election code of conduct by issuing TET notification which, he said, is part and parcel of DSC notification.
The students were told by the joint director that the government did not explain to them that TET marks had weightage in DSC exam.
However, he promised them that he would bring the issue to the notice of the secretary and state election commissioner and promised to take a decision after conducting a review meeting before July 15, when the receiving of online applications for the TET set commences.
Though the students planned to meet State Election Commissioner P Ramakanth Reddy and secretary Navin Mittal, they were only able to meet the joint director in the absence of the two key officials.