Cuttack, Aug. 3: Orissa High Court has imposed restrictions on conducting the eligibility test for appointment of teachers from classes I to VIII in the state.

Justice Sanju Panda on Thursday passed the interim stay order on as many as 12 petitions filed by applicants for direct recruitment of the sikhya sahayaks, a category of primary teachers whose jobs become regular in six years on the basis of career evaluation.

The first Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) in the state was scheduled to be held on August 12. But, the petitions challenged it on the ground that TET was not included as one of the eligibility criteria when district-wise advertisements were issued in December last year inviting applications for direct recruitment of the sikhya sahayaks. Around one lakh applicants applied for the posts.

In the process, the districts had prepared merit lists, including a total of 17,942 candidates for the sikhya sahayaks. The school and mass education department asked the districts to keep the recruitment process on hold after the government had decided to conduct TET instead of direct recruitment as advertised earlier, a petitioner said.

The department had decided to introduce TET for appointment of teachers in primary and upper primary schools following a circular issued by the National Council for Teacher Education.

According to the council, passing TET is one of the essential qualification norms for a person to be eligible for appointment as teacher in Class I to VIII under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. The council circular, issued on February 11 last year, further prescribed conducting of TET by a suitable professional body designated by the government for the purpose.

Accordingly, the state government had designated the Board of Secondary Education, Odisha as the professional body to conduct TET in the state. Subsequently, the department issued guidelines for conducting the test. The guidelines prescribed conducting of TET called Odisha Teachers Eligibility Test (OTET) once a year or as decided by the government according to need.