COIMBATORE: With just 15,406 candidates clearing the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) paper-II, conducted by Teacher Recruitment Board (TRB) in February, out of the 2.54 lakh (6%) who appeared, teacher aspirants blamed errors and mistakes in question paper for the poor result. Thousands of aspirants could not secure the pass mark of 82 out of 150 and lost the chance to write the competitive exam for secondary grade teachers.
According to sources, the board received 16,409 objections from 3,341 aspirants regarding the question paper after the results were declared on March 28. Aspirants said more than 20 questions had errors and TRB gave marks to a few questions that were objected to by a large number of aspirants based on its answer key.
D Manikandan from Erode said, “Question number 82 in English (Master Question Paper) asked us to identify the odd one out from wuyyles. This word is a spelling mistake. The right word is Wuzzles which is to identify a sport.”
K Manojkumar of Chennai told TNIE, “In Social Science section, question number 150 asked which state in India does not have a railway network. The four options were Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, and Sikkim. As per TRB it was Meghalaya. The correct answer is Sikkim.”
K Swarnadevi said she was given 74 marks in paper II after she raised objections to 11 questions and uploaded evidence on TRB portal. But TRB accepted three questions and rejected the rest. “I could not reach passing marks and cannot write the eligibility test,” she said, adding she has lodged a complaint with CM’s grievances redressal Cell.
N Amaresan, founder cum trainer of the Mesmerize Academy at Tiruvannamalai, told TNIE, “Only 6.06% of aspirants cleared the examination. Like paper -I, there were many errors in paper II.” When contacted, D Uma, a member of the TRB, said TRB gave marks to aspirants’ objections, as per standard textbooks. TRB chairman (in charge) K Nandakumar did not respond to calls or text messages for a comment.