Govt yet to announce fresh date for UPTET, candidates anxious

LUCKNOW: Over 1.6 million candidates, who have registered for the Uttar Pradesh Teachers’ Eligibility Test (UPTET)-2019, are anxious as the state government is yet to announce the new date for the test.

The exam was to be held on December 22, but was postponed on December 20 due to unavoidable circumstances, said officials.

Basic education minister Satish Dwivedi on Thursday said there has been no decision over the new date. “We are working to find out a suitable date. We have to conduct the examination on a day that does not clash with any other major competitive examination. Availability of centres is also a consideration,” said the minister.

“Fresh date for the said examination will be announced soon,” said Renuka Kumar, additional chief secretary, basic education department.

“The postponement was unexpected and I was unaware of it till Saturday morning as Internet services were suspended in Prayagraj for over 36 hours. The newspapers informed about the postponement,” said Ankit Dubey, an aspiring school teacher registered to appear in UPTET-2019.

“I am worried as I have not been able to download the admit card due to mobile internet shutdown,” he added.

Dubey is not the only one to be in this dilemma.

Till Friday evening, around 70,000 registered candidates in UP had not been able to download their admit cards, mainly because of suspended internet services in various districts.

As per information received from National Informatics Centre (NIC) at Prayagraj-headquartered Exam Regulatory Authority, UP— the body entrusted with the task of conducting the exam— a total of 10,68,912 candidates have registered to appear in the exam at primary level while 5,65,337 have done so for the upper-primary level, an official said.

POPULARITY OF THE EXAM

The popularity of the exam can be gauged from the fact that UPTET held on November 18, 2018 attracted around 2.2 million (22 lakh) registrations, of which 17.83 lakh candidates were issued admit cards. The primary level exam saw 11,01,645 out of the 11,70,786 appear in the exam while at the upper primary level also 5,71,416 appeared in the exam out of the total 6,12,930 candidates.

Candidates who have passed BTC, BEd or other National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) approved courses can appear in this test so as to become eligible to appear in Teacher’s Recruitment Exam—the final hurdle for a candidate to become a teacher in government-run primary and upper primary schools.

NCTE allowed B Ed pass candidates to apply for primary school teachers’ posts in June 2018 and this saw the number of applicants rise dramatically in UPTET.