Patna: After distribution of appointment letters to ‘Sakshamta 2‘ qualified teachers on Saturday, Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) Teacher Recruitment Exam Phase-3 (TRE-3) qualified candidates are awaiting their turn to get the joining letters by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on March 9.
More than 66,0000 candidates have qualified BPSC TRE-3 for PRT, TGT and PGT level. A mega event is likely to be ogranised by the education department at Gandhi Maidan to award the joining letters.
However, thousands of candidates are in a fix as their counselling process remained incomplete. Reason, many candidates could not upload the related documents properly at the time of filling up their forms owing to technical complications and the concerned officials of the department are not cooperating with the aspirants. Minor human errors during form filling, confusion in BPSC guideline or arbitrary rules of counselling officials are also attributed to the confusion among the TRE-3 qualified teachers.
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Such candidates, who were waiting for the reopening of the portal for a month for correction of their documents, are reeling under fear of exclusion from those of successful candidates and another round of unending wait.
Counselling held between Jan 21-Feb 5
Bihar education department conducted counselling process for document verification of qualified candidates from January 21 to February 5. The counselling process was held at the District Registration cum Counselling Centre (DRCC) of all districts of the state.
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Many candidates alleged that their document verification was put in ‘doubtful’ category by DRCC officials as they were confused regarding the process or not completely aware of guidelines. A group of aspirants also alleged that the assigned officials debarred their counselling processing due to arbitrary rules.
Some of the major concerns shared by candidates whose document verification remained unsuccessful are as follows:
Candidates in ‘Doubtful’ category
Around 10,000 candidates have been put in ‘doubtful’ category as their documents were not approved at DRCC citing several reasons including blur uploaded documents, upload of web copy, mark sheet upload instead of certificate or wrong sequence of document upload or incomplete document upload.
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Swati, a candidate qualified for Class 9-10, said, “The DRCC official raised a question on my STET certificate as I had uploaded a web copy issued by Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB). At the time of form filling, BSEB had not issued original certificates. Moreover, BSEB had given public advertisements in newspapers clarifying that web copy of STET will remain valid in TRE. Despite this, my document verification remained unsuccessful.”
“The DRCC officials assured me and other candidates that the BPSC portal will reopen soon and I will get a chance to upload my original certificate. One month is over and I am still waiting for the notice. I am going through mental stress,” she added.
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Another candidate Pankaj Raj, said, “I had uploaded my B.Ed certificate in the graduation column and BA certificate in B.Ed. column during form filling. I showed my original documents and pleaded with the officer as it was just a human error. But I was put in the doubtful category.”
Confusing BPSC guidelines
Several candidates had to go through the issues owing to lack of clarity in the BPSC guidelines.
Manoj Kumar , said, “The application form mentioned to upload graduation certificate. So, I uploaded my provisional certificate instead of the marksheet. But I was put in the doubtful category. The officials said I had to upload both the mark sheet and certificate. Ironically, candidates, who appeared in other districts did not face such a problem.”
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CTET 82-marks controversy
Several candidates from the state belonging to reserved category, who have scored 82 marks in CTET, were either barred from counselling process or put in doubtful category, said candidates.
Sunita, a candidate belonging to OBC category, said, “I have scored 82 marks in CTET. DRCC officials said that they will not allow candidates with 82 marks for counselling citing a 83 as minimum qualification marks.”
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According to CBSE, which conducts Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET), the passing marks are set at 60% for general category, which translates to 90 out of 150. In contrast, candidates from reserved categories such as SC, ST, OBC, and physically handicapped individuals are required to score only 55%, equating to 82.5 marks.
Technically, scoring 82.5 is not possible as CTET comprises each question carrying one mark without any provision of negative marking. So a candidate can score either 82 or 83.
This discrepancy has led to significant confusion, particularly among those scoring 82 marks, as they are often left in a state of uncertainty regarding their qualification status.
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NCTE rules 82 as qualifying marks
On this, RTI was filed and National Council for Teachers’ Education (NCTE) clarified that 82 marks will be considered as passing marks for the reserved category. Previously, the state education department has recruited eligible candidates on 82 marks in TRE 1 and 2.
600 candidates await district allocation
There are around 600 candidates, who have yet not got district allotment along with other qualified candidates. One such candidate, Rahul, said, “I qualified for the TRE 3 exam with a good rank. However, I have not got district allotment yet. In the district allotment list, my roll number was left blank in the district column.”
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“I along with other candidates with the same problem visited the Secretariat office and education department around five times. Every time officials gave us verbal assurance and asked to wait”, he added.
PGT candidates: Result of 6 subjects still pending
While TRE=3 qualified candidates of PRT and TGT are facing trouble after result declaration, many PGT aspirants are still waiting for the announcement of their results. BPSC has not declared the result of six subjects, including English, Maths, Botany, Zoology, Chemistry and Physics, as the commission has to give weightage of 5 marks for each year of their experience (upto the maximum of 25 marks to guest teachers).
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A group of candidates also claimed that they visited the education department this week with hope of meeting additional chief secretary, education, S Siddharth and get assurance for resolving their issues but they could not meet him and had to return empty handed.
BPSC issued notification for TRE 3 exam in February 2024 and exam was conducted in March, which was later cancelled due to paper leak. The commission held re-exam in July 2024 and the result was declared phase wise in mid-November last year.
