The education department has invited applications from candidates who cleared the 2011 Teachers' Eligibility Test to fill vacancies in government schools across the state.

The candidates can apply with their panchayat-, block- or district-appointing authorities. From the 2011 pool of 2.5 lakh successful candidates, around 1.5 lakh teachers have been recruited in the past three years. The rest are yet to be appointed and now, they can take another shot.

Ram Bujhavan Chowdhary, director, secondary education, said: 'Candidates who have passed the Teachers' Eligibility Test can apply from December 22 to January 21. After the merit list is prepared, candidates would be issued the appointment letters.'

Sources said the appointment letters would be issued by March-end or the first week of April.

The government aims to bridge the teacher-student gap in the government schools.

As part of the recruitment process now, 1 lakh teachers would be appointed for elementary schools, secondary schools and higher secondary schools across all subjects - mathematics, languages, science and social science.

After this, the government would conduct a fresh examination for another 1 lakh teachers. At present, Bihar has one teacher for every 56 students. Ideally, there should be a teacher for every 30 students.

An official said: 'The Teachers' Eligibility Test scores are valid for seven years. But the government has decided to conduct a fresh round of examinations to increase the number of candidates.'

Santosh Rajak, who cleared the 2011 examination, said: 'This would be a good opportunity for the remaining 2011 candidates, as after this year, we would have to vie for posts with fresh candidates.'