Guwahati, Aug. 12: Dispur is planning to do away with the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) for recruitment of schoolteachers at the secondary level for Classes IX to XII.

Education minister Sarat Borkataky revealed the Assam government's plans in his Assembly chamber this afternoon. "We will push for the changes in the existing rules for recruitment of teachers at the secondary level in the December session of the Assembly. The reasons for the move will be revealed when the bill is tabled. There are nearly 4,000 vacancies," Borkataky told The Telegraph.

Sources in the education department said changes would have to be made in the Assam Secondary Education (Provincialised) Service (Amendment) Rules, 2012 for the recruitment process. The first TET at the secondary level for graduate teachers (IX-X) was held in 2012 and for post-graduate teachers (XI-XII) in 2014. The test is held for recruitment of teachers for Assam's primary (classes I-V 5), upper primary (VI-VIII), secondary (IX-X) and higher secondary (XI-XII) schools.

Conducted by the Rashtriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhiyan, TET became an essential qualification to become a teacher under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, mainly to ensure that those recruited "possess the essential aptitude and ability to meet the challenges of teaching at the primary and upper primary level".

The move to do away with the test, sources in academic circles said, would adversely impact the quality of recruitment. "TET was a huge relief for aspiring teachers. Those with merit got the job without any outside help. For better or worse, TET should stay. It has generated a lot of goodwill for the government and fuelled hope among meritorious candidates," one of them said.

Borkataky said he was also pushing for capping the number of those who clear TET. "The appointments are made against existing vacancies. TET is a necessary qualification but recruitment depends on vacancies. We are suggesting that if there are 100 vacancies, we should have 120 TET-cleared candidates, not 500. Having a large number of TET-passed creates a problem since they demand appointments which we can't provide within the stipulated deadline," he said. A TET certificate is valid for two years.