The avoidable TET fiasco
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: September 19, 2012 -

Though Kuki Students' Organisation (KSO) may have been prevailed over to call off its proposed 48-hour with effect from 5 am tomorrow (September 19), the manner in which the authority concerned of the State Government had handled the issue over Teacher's Eligibility Test (TET) definitely left a bad taste in the mouth of the people.

Close behind the heels of KSO announcing its decision of imposing bandh if the demand for issuing TET forms through the respective zonal centres and conduct of the examination in every district headquarters is not met, five tribal student bodies, namely
Churachandpur District Students' Union (CDSU);
Zeliangrong Students' Union, Manipur (ZSUM);
Naga Students' Union, Chandel (NSUC);
Tangkhul Katamnao Saklong (TKS) and
Senapati District Students' Association (SDSA)
too jointly reserved an ultimatum to the Education Minister and other authorities concerned yesterday (September 17) for making necessary arrangements for issuing TET forms and conducting the examination in all district headquarters within 3 days.

These tribal student bodies also warned of launching intense democratic agitations in case of failure of meeting their demand within the deadline set. In between, endorsing the stand of the agitated tribal student bodies, All Tribal Students' Federation, Manipur (ATSEM) and Thadou Students' Association (TSA), General Headquarters too announced their decision of supporting the proposed bandh and other follow up actions.

With calling off the bandh after a joint meeting, an imminent show down between the agitated tribal student bodies and the government agency concerned may have been foiled, but the state government and more particularly the Board of Secondary Education Manipur, which has been entrusted with the job of conducting the second TET in the state, definitely needs to do some serious rethinking over the issue.

In fact, the contention of the agitating tribal student bodies was just plain and simple - issuing of TET forms from an only designated centre at Imphal is a great disadvantage to aspiring candidates staying in far flung areas.

So, there is merit and justification over the demands of the tribal student bodies, and we are sure that it must have also given sleepless nights to officials concerned of Board of Secondary Education Manipur.

One visible impact, of course, was the subsequent decision taken for increasing the number of centres for issuing TET forms from one to five centres since Sunday last.

With TET becoming a compulsory examination for all aspiring candidates to be considered for the post of teaching in schools in Manipur, it is understandable that many an educated youth, not just in term of a few thousands but in lakhs would be applying for the said examination.

Why the Board of Secondary Education Manipur fails to consider this possibility while setting out to conduct such an important examination is perplexing.

With a little foresight, many a needless headache and heartache could have been surely avoided.