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Haryana teachers’ eligibility test row: Education board staff hold protest, allege pressure to destroy records
Haryana school board employees protested, alleging pressure to destroy HTET records amid court scrutiny, while the chairman denied any wrongdoing.
The employees of the board of school education, Haryana, in Bhiwani staged a protest on Thursday alleging that they have been directed to ‘destroy records pertaining to the 2024 Haryana teachers’ eligibility test (HTET) result, when the matter is subjudice in the Punjab and Haryana high court.
The board chairman, Pawan Kumar, denied the charges and said only unnecessary papers are being disposed of.
The Haryana board had declared the 2024 HTET result on November 10 last year, with an overall pass percentage of 14%. The examination was conducted for three levels- primary teacher (prt), trained graduate teacher (TGT) and post-graduate teacher.
The results have been clouded by allegations of discrepancies, with the high court on April 29 directing the board secretary to preserve all records related to the test while adjourning the matter to July 10.
Haryana board employees’ association general secretary, Sombir Punia, who led the protest, said that the board hasn’t uploaded the optical mark recognition (OMR) sheet of the successful candidates, which, according to rules, has to be done within three months after the declaration of the results.
“The authorities have failed to implement this necessary procedure, and now they are mounting pressure on employees to destroy the records related to the 2024 HTET results. Many students have approached the Punjab and Haryana high court challenging the result and flagging anomalies. In case the records are destroyed, they (employees) will have to bear the brunt,” Punia said.
The controversy surrounds the revised result declared after 110 days of the exam.
“In the revised list 1,284 candidates were declared successful without publishing their scores on their board website, and their biometric verification remained incomplete,” the employees said.
A senior board official said the special examination cell, which handles the HTET exam, is yet to receive details on how many candidates have completed biometric verification and how many are pending.
“We have also not received the successful candidates’ OMR and result declaration certificate. The candidates have been demanding the release of their HTET pass certificates for the last five months, but the board has failed to do so,” the official said, requesting anonymity.
Meanwhile, Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) youth wing president Digvijay Singh Chautala and Indian National Students Organisation (INSO) head Pradeep Deswal alleged a nexus between the board and the middlemen who have fixed the results.
“The board authorities are mounting pressure on employees to destroy the records of the results. The government should conduct a high-level probe and match the record of successful candidates in the final result and OMR sheet.,” Chautala said.
Refuting the allegations, board chairman Pawan Kumar said that the records of the 2024 HTET exam are safe.
“There is no tampering of the results. A procedure is being adopted to dispose of unnecessary papers,” Kumar said.
