Aspirants irked as TRB yet to release annual planner for 2024

CHENNAI: December has gone by and the new year has already begun, but the Tamil Nadu Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) is yet to release the annual planner for 2024, which lists the schedule of various examinations it conducts, irking scores of teaching aspirants.

The board recruits assistant professors in arts and science colleges, and engineering and law colleges, besides block education officers, secondary grade teachers, graduate teachers and lecturers in government polytechnic colleges.

To help candidates overcome the difficulties due to examination schedules fixed by various recruitment agencies overlapping, the board started publishing annual recruitment planner that gives the details of tentative examination schedules of various written examinations for the coming year. Every year, the planner is released in December for the benefit of aspirants.

The Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) has already released its 2024 annual planner prior to the beginning of the calendar year, but not TRB.

A senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next that there were delays in identifying the total vacancies in government schools and colleges. “The annual planner for 2024 will be released soon,” he said, but could not give information about the date or even month.

Sources from the board admitted that they were receiving a large number of enquiries every day from teaching aspirants from across the State to find out more details about the annual planner.

Anil Kumar, a teaching aspirant who had recently completed his B Ed degree, said hundreds of aspirants like were in the dark as to when the exam would be conducted. “Even when I called TRB’s toll-free number, the official concerned was not able to give the exact date on which the annual planner would be released,” he said.

K Shalini, another teaching aspirant who wants to appear for Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET), said she could begin preparations in full effort only if the TRB announces the dates. “There is no proper answer from TRB regarding this. Even when we approach the officials directly, their answer is that the TET schedule would be announced soon,” she added.

B Elangovan, a senior representative of the Tamil Nadu Teachers’ Welfare Association, said, “Every year, the TRB would release its annual plan by mid-December. The delay this time has caused stress among teaching aspirants, as they could not plan their schedule accordingly.”

Last year, TRB could not conduct many exams that were scheduled as per the annual planner 2023, he alleged.