Common entrance test made compulsory for teachers to be recruited in public or private schools

Updated on: Thursday, June 27, 2013

Aspiring schoolteachers will have to clear a compulsory common entrance test (CET) before they can be recruited in public or private schools.

On Wednesday, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, along with state minister for school education Fauzia Khan, gave an in-principle approval to the proposal, which will be subsequently forwarded to the state cabinet for the final nod.

The Maharashtra government has given its in-principle approval to a proposal of making it mandatory for all aspiring schoolteachers to clear a Common Entrance Test (CET) before they can be recruited in public or private schools.

The new system will be an addition to the existing teacher eligibility test (TET), which aspiring teachers already have to sit for, under the provisions of the Right to Education (RTE) Act. A detailed proposal will be forwarded to state cabinet for approval after deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar cleared the plans along with state minister for school education Fauzia Khan on Wednesday.

"The CET will be in addition to TET and it will ensure that we select the best candidates. With the extra test, we want to make sure that only the best qualified teachers enter classrooms," said additional chief secretary J S Saharia. Several candidates felt they were denied a fair chance of becoming a teacher, said Pawar, adding that the CET would hopefully make the selection process more competitive as well as transparent. "There should not be any injustice with any of the candidates and therefore, it was important to take the decision," Pawar said.

Currently, to sit for the eligibility test before being appointed in a school, a candidate needs to hold either a diploma in education (DEd) or a bachelor's degree in education (BEd). "But there have been several complaints of money exchanging hands to obtain any of those diplomas or degrees. So to weed out unqualified teachers, to stop malpractice in the short-listing procedure and to foolproof the selection of only good candidates, we introduced the extra round of exam," said an official. Senior government officials said the CET has been necessitated as there have been complaints of malpractice in the existing arrangement for selecting and short listing teachers.

The TET has already been implemented in many states under the RTE guidelines and Maharashtra too has initiated the process. The CET will come into effect after a cabinet approval.

The criteria for CET, however, have not yet been laid down.

Apart from these tests, the government has already put in place several safeguard for minimum academic and professional qualifications for aspiring teachers.

Common entrance test made compulsory for teachers to be recruited in public or private schools

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