Cloud on teacher test

TT, Calcutta, Aug. 29: The government is still not sure whether it would be able to hold the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) on October 4 as elections to the municipal corporations in Asansol and Bidhannagar are scheduled to be held a day earlier.

Officials said many of the polling centres were likely to be used as exam centres too.

The exam was earlier scheduled to be held tomorrow but was deferred to October 4 after a bag containing question papers got lost. Education minister Partha Chatterjee had announced the change in the exam date yesterday.

"It will be tough to use the polling stations as exam centres the next day. We will talk to the district magistrates of Burdwan and North 24-Parganas on Monday to decide what steps could be taken," a senior official said.

According to sources, education minister Chatterjee would be part of the meeting, which would be held through video-conferencing, along with chief secretary Sanjay Mitra and home secretary Basudeb Banerjee.

"Although the notification announcing the civic polls is yet to be issued, it is unlikely that they would be deferred as the state election commission has to conduct the polls at the earliest in keeping with a Supreme Court directive. So if any problem arises, the TET will have to be deferred again," another official said.

Nabanna sources said the problem has arisen because education department officials took the "unusual" step of not consulting the chief secretary or the home secretary before finalising the revised TET date.

"Nearly 23 lakh candidates will take the exam and it cannot be held properly without police and administrative support. It is unclear why the education department announced the exam date unilaterally," an official said.