Teachers who passed the Meghalaya Teacher Eligibility Test (MTET) examinations under the aegis of the All Garo Hills MTET Qualified Candidates (AGHMQC) met Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma at his residence in Tura and submitted a petition of their grievances over placements in various teaching vacancies that are lying in the state.
The results of the MTET qualification exams were declared early this year following the exams being held last year. However immediately after the announcement, the entire country went into lockdown mode following the spread of Covid– 19 pandemic.
The teachers met the Chief Minister yesterday and highlighted what they felt was detrimental to the growth of education within the state.
“There are many vacant UP and LP teaching posts across the state but we teachers are not getting any intimation for interviews for various posts available from the concerned department,” said the teachers through their memo.
The teachers further expressed their apprehension over the fact that the validity of MTET had been reduced to two years and they were losing valuable time due to the lack of interview calls.
“The validity originally was for seven years but was later reduced to only 2. 9 months have already passed and that is a worrying factor,” they added.
Another concern for the teachers was that if the two years was allowed to pass, some of them would be over the age of qualification. They urged the CM to speak to the Education department of the state to work on fixing the interview dates immediately.
A part of the same group of teachers later met the Chief Minister in Bajengdoba where he had come to inaugurate a school. One from the group spoke at length on the issue but added that there was no assurance given on fixing interview dates.
The teachers said that the Chief Minister cited Covid for the delay in interview as interviewers were apprehensive of the process during this time. He however assured them he would meet the education department on the matter.
A disheartened group of teachers however asked the logic behind the entire process as interviews were being held for other departments even during the time of the pandemic.
“When other departments are able to conduct interviews, why are being left out,” the MTET qualified teachers questioned.
