Mita Mukherjee

A division bench of Calcutta High Court on Friday set up a three-member committee to examine whether there were any errors in questions in 2017 and 2022 Teacher Eligibility Test (TET).

The division bench of Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Uday Kumar said in its order that the committee will find out whether some questions in certain subjects had errors or not and the expert panel will have to submit its report before the court in two weeks.

The court said the school education department will constitute the committee that will comprise a member from Calcutta University, Visva-Bharati and the state primary education board.

A group of candidates had filed a case alleging that more than 20 questions set in the TET 2017 and 2022 had errors. The TET is held to appoint assistant teachers in state-aided primary schools in Bengal.

The division bench on Friday was hearing an appeal made by the state against orders passed by the court on the same matter in April.

The court had on April 25 directed the vice-chancellor of Visva-Bharati to set up a committee to find out whether 21 questions in 2017 had any errors.       

The court asked the vice-chancellor of Jadavpur University to find out whether there were any errors in the 2022 TET questions on June 26. The court heard the appeal on June 26 but no order was passed. 

On Friday’s order the school education department was given the responsibility to constitute the committee instead of Jadavpur University and Visva-Bharati.

The school education department will soon constitute the committee as directed by the court, an official of the department said.

Several state-aided primary schools are facing problems for not having adequate teachers. But the vacancies in the teaching posts cannot be filled because of litigation against TET. Schools urged the government to start the recruitment process once the stalemate is resolved in the court.

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