CHENNAI: Several candidates who cleared the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) in 2013 and subsequently passed the appointment exam in 2023.

Staged a protest on the Department of Public Instruction campus in Chennai on Wednesday, urging the Directorate of School Education to confirm their appointment and employ permanent staff instead of temporary ones.

Speaking to DT NEXT, a protestor said, “I cleared the TET in 2013 for a Bachelor of Training (BT) post, but I wasn’t appointed right away. To check our eligibility, another exam was conducted in 2023, which I cleared. But, so far, the department hasn’t appointed me to any post.”

Despite issuing notification to apply for various exams, the Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) hasn’t made any actual appointment neither to BT nor to Secondary Grade Teachers roles since 2021, protesters said.

“There are about 15,000 teacher vacancies in the education department. Instead of appointing candidates who cleared the exam, the department is filling the posts with temporary staff,” noted a protestor.

Hence, we urged the department to fill the vacant posts with permanent staff, excluding the 1,768 vacant SGT posts under the Directorate of Elementary Education and 2,222 vacancies for BT and Block Resource Teacher Educators.

Meanwhile, raising mismanagement concerns, the members of the 2013 TNTET welfare association demanded a police inquiry into TRB’s appointments of 3,000 persons to various posts within the education department.

Association members said, “such illegal postings are done while conducting tests for recruiting teachers, like the one done in 2012.”