West Bengal: Amid recruitment 'scam', 7 lakh teaching aspirants sit for TET

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], December 11 (ANI): Seven lakh aspirants appeared for the West Bengal Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) on Sunday in West Bengal.
The exam took place after a gap of five years, amid a continuing political slugfest and protests over alleged irregularities in recruitment of primary school teachers in the state.
According to an official statement, 11,000 centres were arranged across the state for holding the exam.
Further, according to official sources, the exam was held to fill up approximately 11,000 vacant teaching posts in primary schools across the state.
The exam, conducted by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE), kicked off at 12 noon and ended at 2.30pm.
There was heavy security deployment at all exam centres to prevent any foul play, sources said, adding that the exam went off peacefully.
However, there were reports that some teaching aspirants reached the exam centres after the reporting hour and weren't allowed to enter. They protested briefly after which they were allowed to take the exam, sources informed.
Priyanka Sarkar, an examinee, told ANI, "I cleared the 2017 TET but wasn't recruited. I hope all recruitments would be made following protocol this year."
Another teaching aspirant, Diksha Gurang from Siliguri, told ANI, "We fill up the forms and appear for the exam. We don't know what happens internally. However, all we can do is hope that the evaluation of test papers and the recruitments would be fair this time."
The conduct of competitive exams for recruitment of teachers in the state came under a huge cloud earlier this year after former state higher education minister and senior Trinamool Congress leader Partha Chatterjee was arrested in connection with the alleged West Bengal School Service Commission and West Bengal Primary Education Board recruitment scam.
Following his arrest, Chatterjee lost all the posts he held in the TMC and was suspended from the party, pending investigation.
The minister's arrest followed raids by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at the multiple addresses of his aide Arpita Mukherjee, which resulted in the recovery of Rs 50 crore.
The Opppsition alleged that the cash recovered was linked to the teacher recruitment 'scam'.
Later, the CBI also arrested the former president of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, Kalyanmoy Ganguly, for his alleged involvement in the scam. (ANI)