Collector Sankar on Saturday inspected examination centres where 18, 303 candidates from across the district were writing the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) conducted by the Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB).
The candidates arrived in 44 centres in the district to qualify for posts of secondary grade teachers. The exam began at 10 am and ended at 1 pm.
On Sunday, 20,303 candidates are expected to appear for the second paper of the TET to qualify for posts of graduate teachers in 47 centres in the district.
The Teacher Eligibility Test is mandatory for teachers from Class 1 to Class 8.
The Collector said that the examination was conducted amidst tight security and all centres were provided with basic facilities such as drinking water, toilets and uninterrupted power supply.
Five special teams under the chief educational officer, SSA, district educational officer, district elementary education officer and inspector of matriculation schools were formed to oversee and monitor the examinations across the district.
Use of mobile phones inside examination halls was banned, the collector said.
A cross-section of the candidates said that only questions in the subjects of psychology and Tamil were tough while others said that about half of the questions were difficult.
Joint director (Secondary Education) Dr Muthu Palanisamy, CEO T V Senguttuvan and PRO Bharathidasan accompanied the Collector.