Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, Dec 27: A group of Arunachal Pradesh Teacher Eligibility Test (APTET) 2019 candidates on Friday said the directorate of elementary education (DEE) has rejected their applications on what they called unjustifiable ground.
The APTET 2019 is slated to be held on 5 January, 2020. The candidates said they received a message from the APTET tech support, informing that their applications have been rejected.
After receiving the message, a group of candidates called on Elementary Education Director Tapi Gao to enquire about the reason for the rejection. The candidates claimed that Gao asked them to produce “to whom it may concern certificates” from their respective institutes.
The candidates claimed that most of the rejected applicants are BEd fourth semester students who have already sat for the third semester examination. However, the results of the 3rd semester are yet to be declared.
In the notification issued by the director and published on 15 November, the eligibility criteria’s Clause 5 says: “‘Appearing candidates’ means the students of final semester of qualifying exam only are eligible to apply for APTET 2019.”
The candidates accused the director of deliberately barring them from appearing for the APTET, without giving a specific reason for the rejection.
“In the previous APTET, which had been held in January 2019, we appeared, though we were in BEd first semester,” said a female candidate who preferred not to be named.
“When we met the director, he asked us to produce ‘to whom it may concern certificates’ from the respective institutes, whereas all the Rajiv Gandhi University-affiliated BEd colleges are on winter break,” she added.
On being contacted via WhatsApp, Gao said, “The final semester can appear, not 3rd semester. The rejected candidates are of 3rd semester, not final semester.”
