Over 3 lakh take TET at 773 centres

The West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) had set up 67 control rooms at the subdivision and district-level to monitor the situation. The control rooms were operational from 9 am to 5 pm. However, an hour after the exam started there were reports that a part of the TET question paper had gone viral on social media. WBBPE president Goutam Paul said as the question paper was allegedly released online after the entrance started, it couldn’t be called a ‘paper leak’.

“TET started on Sunday noon. A part of the question paper was seen online around 1 pm…No student benefited from it. It cannot be called a paper leak. Some people are just trying to create controversy,” said Paul.

“The exam started at 12 pm. A part of the paper was seen on WhatsApp by 1 pm. There were nearly 800 centres. No one with mobile phones was allowed inside the centres. All candidates had entered their examination centres at 11 am,” said an official.

Meanwhile, the Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) rolled out special services for the convenience of examinees. “Metro services started from 6.50 am on Sunday for the convenience of the TET aspirants on the Blue Line. On the particular day, 234 services (117 up and 117 down) were operated instead of the regular 130 services over the entire stretch of the Metro corridor,” said an official.

The transport department operated extra buses for examinees. Ferry services were also operational on Sunday for aspirants coming to Kolkata from the other side of the Ganga river.

On Saturday, Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari hit out at the Trinamool Congress-led state government for conducting TET without assuring employment for candidates who had already cleared the exam.

“In 2022, the students took the test (TET) but no one got employment. Now again they are conducting the test. This is nothing but a wastage of people’s money. They are doing it ahead of Lok Sabha elections to show how serious their government is about providing employment while it is just another way to take people’s hard-earned money.”

The TET was held in West Bengal in 2022 after a gap of five years due to alleged irregularities in the recruitment process in the 2014 exam. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing the case on the orders of the Calcutta High Court.

Adhikari’s comments come shortly after the arrest of more than 50 TET candidates who were protesting outside Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s residence on Friday. The protesters had claimed that they hadn’t got jobs despite clearing the TET.

The aspirants were booked under both bailable and non-bailable sections of the IPC. On Saturday, 55 out of the 59 protesters — all women — were released on bail. The remaining four men were sent to police custody till Monday.