Assam: Education Dept to Move Court Again Over Grace Mark Issue

Assam Education Minister Ranoj Pegu on Tuesday said that the government will again move to court over grace mark issue.

It may be mentioned that the state education department has put on hold the appointment process of TET qualified candidates who passed with grace marks following an order of the Gauhati High Court after disposing four sets of writ petitions regarding grace marks in TET exam.

The Director of Secondary Education also withheld the results of the candidates who had passed the TET exams with grace marks till the judgment of the order.

After hearing petitions filed by TET qualified candidates, a single bench judge of the High Court comprising Justice Kalyan Rai Surana on May 15 in an order had said that passing TET with grace marks was illegal.

A writ petition filed before the court by the TET qualified candidates without grace marks demanded that they must be given preference over candidates who qualified with grace marks.

Also Read: All Arrangements Made To Protect Animals During Floods: Assam Minister

“The award of grace to the extent of five marks in either Part-I or Part-II to candidates who had qualified in either of the two parts but failed in one, is held to be illegal. The respondent authorities would do the needful to recall such grace marks within a period of two months from the service of a certified copy of this order,” the court said in its order.

Uncertainty looms large over the jobs of more than seven thousand secondary TET teachers in the state following the order, and there is uncertainty over the jobs of many candidates who have been working in various schools after passing the secondary TET with grace marks.

It is believed there were some TET qualified candidates with grace marks among 2,221 candidates who were appointed by the DoSE on May 11 as part of the state government’s one lakh job for the state’s youth.

Meanwhile, the list of 1,381 TET qualified candidates will also be declared till the final judgement of the order by the High Court. The results of secondary TET were announced on March 4, 2020, in which 7,417 have been declared as TET qualified.

Later, an additional 4,615 candidates have also been declared as TET qualified by giving five grace marks. With this, the total number of secondary TET qualified candidates has gone up to 11,322.

In addition to this, more than 710 candidates have been declared TET qualified to grant one more grace mark to each owing to the error in answer scripts following which the total number of secondary TET qualified candidates has further gone up to 12,032.

Of them, the recruitment process was one for 5,746 secondary TET teachers, official sources said.

Also Read: Airtel Offers Unlimited Benefits for Flood-Hit Customers in Assam