Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader and former Minister T. Harish Rao has requested Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy to roll back the increase in the fee for Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) as several candidates eligible to appear for the test, particularly those from rural areas, are not in a position to bear it.
In a letter addressed to the Chief Minister, Mr. Harish Rao said on Monday that the State Government had recently increased the TET exam fee and had also withdrawn the rebate in fee usually given to the SC, ST and candidate with physical disability challenged (differently-abled). The hike in fee was nothing but betraying the unemployed youth.
Stating that the BRS was strongly opposing the increase in TET fee, he said during the previous BRS rule, only ₹400 per candidate was collected whether the candidates appeared for one paper (subject) or two. However, the current Congress Government had increased the fee to ₹1,000 for one paper and ₹2,000 for two papers. It was more than double even compared with TET conducted by the CBSE board.
It was also against the spirit of the Constitution and rule of reservation to collect fee from SC, ST and PH candidates on par with general category candidates. Even the CBSE was implementing fee rebate to SC, ST candidates for CTET conducted at the national level. Further, fee rebate were being given in other entrance tests for admission into various courses and recruitment tests. However, the Telangana Government had discontinued it in case of TET.
He pointed out that the B.Ed and D.Ed qualified candidates staged protests across the State demanding a reduction in fee instead of utilising the time available for preparing for TET. But there was no response from the Government. He demanded the government to roll back the increase in fee of TET and provide some relief to the aspirants.
