Scrap competitive exams for teachers' appointment: PMK

CHENNAI: PMK founder S Ramadoss has urged the State government to announce a policy decision to appoint secondary grade teachers and graduate teachers (BT Assistants) based only on the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) and not based on competitive exams.

In his statement, the senior leader said that the government is yet to implement an announcement to appoint 10,407 teachers despite several thousand posts being vacant.

"Several secondary grade teachers, graduate teachers, and PG Assistants posts in government schools are lying vacant. The Chief Minister and School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi promised to fill those posts. Despite the Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) issuing a notification to fill 10,407 posts, not a single teacher has been appointed," he said.

He added that TRB has not fulfilled its duty to select teachers for government schools due to which students are suffering without a sufficient number of teachers.

"It is learned that confusion whether to appoint teachers based on the TET exam or competitive exam is the reason for the delay. There should be no confusion. Teachers should be appointed based on TET," he opined.

He noted that there is no need for more than one exam for a post. In 2013, secondary grade teachers and graduate teachers were appointed based on TET. Competitive exams were imposed in 2018. However, a competitive exam is yet to be conducted.

"If the government announces not to conduct competitive exams, all the issues will be resolved. The government should take policy decisions to appoint teachers based on TET and issue notification," he urged.

Meanwhile, party president Anbumani Ramadoss urged the government to cancel entrance exams like JEE, NEET, and others to prevent the suicides of students. He opined that measures taken by the Kota local administration in Rajasthan to install alarms on ceiling fans to prevent suicides of students are useless unless the exams are cancelled.