The state primary education board has filed an FIR against unknown persons or organisations for allegedly collecting details from candidates who cleared TET (Teachers’ Eligibility Test) in 2022 and posting the data on a website, raising questions about the credibility of the test.
The incident, the board said, “created confusion among the candidates” who had written and cracked the tests.
The website also posted a link to download TET certificates.
The board held the examination on December 11, 2022, and published the results on its official website on February 10, 2023. The recruitment, however, could not be completed following litigation.
The board secretary said in a notice uploaded on its website on Monday afternoon that persons or organisations collected details from what was available in the public domain (the board’s website) and posted it to “malign the board and the state government”.
“After a vivid verification and examination of the data published by the private unauthorised e-service provider, the board is hereby notifying for information to all concerned that the list containing partial data of (TET)-2022 qualified candidates has not been generated by the board. It could be compiled externally as the information available in this list was already in the public domain.”
“The board understood that it was a planned plot to malign the board and the state government.”
Board president Goutam Paul told Metro: “We have filed an FIR in Bidhannagar East police station, so the necessary actions are taken.”
Personal information, including TET certificates of nearly 1.5 lakh candidates, was allegedly posted on the “unauthorised” portal.
Several teaching job aspirants complained that all their documents were accessible on a private agency’s website, and many of the pages got traction on social media.
The site was blocked on Sunday evening.
The board conducted the last TET in December 2023. It has been decided that no further TET exams will be held as recruitments based on TET 2022 and 2023 could not be carried out due to a deluge of court cases.
“At a time when a case is pending in Calcutta High Court over the fate of 32,000 primary schoolteachers, with the court trying to determine whether they had been fairly recruited or not, the publication of the partial data of the candidates who passed TET 2022... created doubts among the candidates about the sanctity of the test,” the board official said.
The board said in its notification that it came to learn through an email on Sunday that “avinandaneservices.com” had published a list of candidates along with some details and a link to download TET certificates.
The website showed individual marks, among other things. “Against some of
the candidates, it was written N/A,” said a board official.
Monday’s notification says: “The board assures all concerned related to TET-2022 (primary), that the data of TET-2022 has not been leaked from the board. All the databases related to TET-2022, along with all the OMR sheets of the candidates, are protected with utmost care under the custody of the board. Further, the board assures all that the board is going to take legal action against the person(s) or organisation(s) who has/have plotted such a conspiracy to malign the board.”