Don’t be misled: Bihar edu minister tells protesting STET candidates

The State Teacher Eligibility Test (STET) qualified candidates need not to worry or get misguided, state education minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary said on Tuesday

The State Teacher Eligibility Test (STET) qualified candidates need not to worry or get misguided, state education minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary said on Tuesday.

HT Image

“All the students will get the opportunity to apply for the teachers’ recruitment to be conducted in a decentralised manner at the level of Panchayati raj institutions and urban local bodies. The recruiting agencies will publish the merit list. At present, there is no relevance of the merit list, as all the qualified candidates are eligible to apply,” he said.

The minister said that the status of those candidates who are on the STET merit list will remain unchanged, but they should understand that the merit list is for eligibility, not appointment. The merit list for appointment will come after due process, starting with category-wise advertisement and online submission of applications. “All the STET candidates are eligible to apply, so there is no reason to become restless at this stage under any influence.Students should have patience,” he added.

The STET candidates have been agitating since the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) published their results in two categories - one for those who qualified and were on the merit list and another for those who qualified STET but their names were not on the list. Besides, the candidates said that there was no category-wise cut-off mentioned for the students.

The STET was held in 2011 and 2019. The government had advertised 37,540 seats in the state’s secondary and higher secondary schools, while the number of candidates turned out to more than double. It has created insecurity among the students.

After the confusion, the education department set up a committee under the department’s principal secretary to correct the anomaly and declared that all the qualified candidates would be eligible to apply in future recruitments. The committee blamed the two categories of results on the earlier validity of STET score for seven years, which the Centre has now made for the lifetime. However, the candidates want all qualified students to be appointed.

However, the STET candidates blamed the government for all the confusion, calling it an attempt to divide the teacher aspirants. They also met the leader of opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav with their demands. “The government has created this situation and it should find a way out. The candidates are on the streets as they felt cheated even after passing the test. The government wanted litigation so that the matter reaches the court, to stall the appointments,” said a STET candidate.

.