WBTET : 160 graduates fight for every teacher post in Bengal

WBTET : 160 graduates fight for every teacher post in Bengal

Dec 6, 2012


West Bengal Primary Education Board|West Bengal 

KOLKATA: As many as 54.5 lakh people - more than the population of Singapore - have applied for primary teacher posts in Bengal, exposing the desperation of the educated in a job-starved state.

This sea of applicants is vying for 35,000 vacancies in state-aided primary schools, which means 160 people are fighting for every post, a grim pointer to where the state is headed to. The mind boggling number has made experts in the Indian Statistical Institute sit up in alarm. "It clearly indicates that there is a serious scarcity of jobs in Bengal," said ISI teacher and economist Avirup Sarkar.

He also sees a rising insecurity among employees in the service sector, not to speak of industry. "This indicates that even the existing jobs are not very secure and hence people are looking for government jobs. Such is the situation that they are lured by the job of a primary teacher. It also implies that people in Bengal do not want to take any risk of doing an independent business or venturing out and also that they do not have much option outside the state," Sarkar said.

However, Calcutta University vice-chancellor Suranjan Das sees nothing extraordinary in the huge number of applicants. "School-level employment is a major catchment area for graduates seeking employment. A common trend in Bengal is to look for a government job instead of a lucrative job in the private sector," Das said.

As is the trend in Bengal, even this has triggered a political blame game. The current education functionaries of the state claim the damage was done by the Left Front regime. "In 2010, 62 lakh people had applied for the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), but the figure didn't show up because the CPM-led government didn't allow all the applicants. The previous board screened applications and allowed only one in 15 candidates to take the test. Going by that principle, there would have been only 4 lakh candidates this time but we did not take that route," said West Bengal Primary Education Board chairperson Manik Bhattacharya.

In fact, he touted it as a "big achievement of the Mamata Banerjee government". "We distributed 54,50,000 forms for the Primary Teachers Recruitment Examination. All applicants have already got their admit cards although the last date for submission of forms was November 30. This is unprecedented. We have been able to solve the anxiety of the long wait for admit cards," Bhattacharya said.

He also said that while the CPM-led government had charged Rs 150 for each form, the Mamata administration asked for Rs 100. "SC and ST candidates had to pay only Rs 25 although the rules allow us to charge Rs 50," Bhattacharyya said, adding that everyone who scores a minimum of 60% in the December 23 test will be called for interview. In the Left regime, one in every two persons who qualified got the interview call-up, he said.


News Source : http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-12-06/kolkata/35646600_1_applicants-teacher-eligibility-test-left-front-regime / Times of India (6.12.2012)
**************************
It is really surprising that approx 55 lakh people applied for Primary Teacher Jobs.
Craze for Government Jobs is very high due to social security and good job profile in teaching sector.

Through RTE , Approx. 20 lakh jobs created all over India. And due to huge requirement, charm for B.Ed / Diploma in Teaching highly increased.