Just 1 in 18 clear test to teach in Maharashtra schools

The MHTET exam is a must for teachers in government and government-aided schools and was conducted on January 16 at 623 centres across the state

Just 5.69% of candidates aspiring to teach secondary school children in state board schools managed to crack the Maharashtra Teachers Eligibility Test (MHTET) in 2015, much lower than the pass rate among their peers who wrote the test to teach in CBSE schools.

Of 1.24 lakh candidates who appeared for paper-II — meant for secondary school teachers — more than 1.17 lakh failed. Only 7,078 qualified . (Pic for representation)

The MHTET is a must for teachers in government and government-aided schools. It was conducted in January at 623 centres across the state and results were announced on Friday by the State Council of Exams. Although the pass rate was better than last year’s 4.16%, academicians said teachers in state education board schools were lagging behind CBSE teachers.

Of 1.24 lakh candidates who appeared for paper-II — meant for secondary school teachers — more than 1.17 lakh failed. Only 7,078 qualified . The results of paper-I, for primary teachers, were not disclosed as the paper was found to be leaked. A re-exam will be held.

The test is conducted in three mediums. Candidates in the English medium performed the worst, with a dismal 2.23% pass rate, followed by Urdu at 3.23%. The Marathi medium, with most candidates, recorded a 5.9% pass rate. Academicians said teachers’ performance in the state has been dismal, while their CBSE counterparts have shown improvement in the Central Teachers Eligibility Test (CTET) conducted by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) from 2011. The CTET pass percentage jumped to 17.43% in 2015 from just 1.7% in 2014. “Both TET and CTET faced teething troubles. Like TET, CTET also had few teachers qualifying in the first four years, but it has picked up,” said Basanti Roy, former, divisional secretary of Maharashtra state board. “However, teachers are continuing to disappoint in TET.”

Principals said performance will improve.“The tests are new for teachers. In the past, there were no papers or study material for teachers to refer to, but now, teachers are getting used to the format,” said Najma Kazi, former principal, Anjuman-i-islam’s Said Tyabji Girls School, Byculla.