Guwahati, June 16: Dispur today did away with interviews in recruiting college teachers to ensure transparency and also revealed plans to make the appointment process to all government departments transparent.

Education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “From today, there will be no interviews for teachers’ posts in Assam. We started with schools, moved to higher secondary and now we have scrapped interviews in colleges so that brilliant candidates get a fair chance to secure jobs.”

The move follows allegations of academically less brilliant candidates moving ahead of the brighter ones by virtue of the 30 marks allotted for interviews.

Sarma said the transparency drive would cover other government departments as well.

“The home department is also planning changes in the recruitment process of constables who will have to take a written test along with the physical test. So is the health department. Other departments will follow suit as the government intends to make the recruitment process as transparent as possible, where merit and only merit counts. Students whiling away their time should devote more time to studies and other academic pursuits,” he said.

The drive for transparency seems to be gathering steam from the applause resounding over the successful conduct of teacher eligibility test (TET) and scrapping of interviews which saw over 26,000 candidates get appointment letters on the basis of merit.

“Before TET, it was unthinkable that one could get a job without paying money or having influential contacts. Now only merit will count, nothing else. People who stand to lose because of this transparency will oppose the move but such measures will generate only goodwill for the incumbent government,” a source said.

Some college teachers and principals had opposed the scrapping of interview but the government’s view is that it is better to have good teachers with poor oratorical skill than open the gates to mediocre teachers.

“True, some people who have problems communicating may get in but then it is equally true that only brilliant minds will get in. Mediocrity will not be allowed in through the backdoor. With more reforms, we can check these problems,” an official said.

The Assam College Principals’ Council had objected to the government’s move on the ground that mere academic brilliance does not guarantee that a person will be a good teacher. It said teaching is an art and a person should join the profession if he or she has the knack for it. The council said even in important exams like the UPSC, viva voce was considered important in the final selection of civil servants and called for a debate on the matter for students’ benefit.

“The highest scorer in every academic examination, from school to university, may prove to be a bad or dumb teacher if he has a feeble and inaudible voice and lacks a pleasant personality and communication skills to make classroom teaching interesting for students. All these things are judged during an interview,” a senior college teacher said.