Bengaluru: Karnataka govt has revised the rules for recruitment of primary school teachers, sharply increasing the weightage on the written selection exam while drastically reducing the weightage on academic performance. The move, claimed education department officials, will help bring better teachers into classrooms. Earlier, marks obtained in academic exams carried a much greater weightage in teacher recruitment. Under the revised rules, however, 90% weightage has been accorded to the combined scores in teacher recruitment exam and Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET), while the weightage on academic performance has been reduced to just 10%, to make teacher recruitment more merit-based. A notification to this effect was issued Friday — the day chief minister Siddaramaiah presented the state budget, where he announced the govt will recruit 15,000 school teachers. For graduate primary teachers (GPT), the recruitment examination weightage has been raised to 70% from 50%, while TET will continue to carry 20% weightage. Additionally, marks obtained in degree exams will now have 8% weightage, while BEd marks will account for 2% of the proportion. In case of candidates with a four-year integrated teacher education degree, weightage for academic performance will be 10%, what earlier used to be 30%. For primary teachers, the recruitment exam weightage has been increased to 70% from 35%, while TET weightage has gone up to 20% from 15%. PUC or class 12 marks will carry 8% weightage and marks for diploma in elementary education or special education will bear 2% weightage. Vikas Kishor Suralkar, the commissioner for school education, said the revised system focuses on genuine merit and will help select the best teachers. Teacher aspirants also said the change could make recruitment fairer. Anitha B K, a private school teacher and a govt job aspirant, said earlier, with 100% internal marking, candidates who did well in their graduation and BEd courses had a better chance of earning eligibility for teaching jobs. Now, with this new rule, candidates who do well in the competitive recruitment exams stand a better chance of qualifying.For GFX:New teacher recruitment weightage: • Overall formula: Recruitment exam + TET 90%, academic marks 10% • Graduate Primary Teachers (GPT): Recruitment exam 70% (earlier 50%), TET 20%, degree marks 8%, BEd 2% • Primary teachers: Recruitment exam 70% (earlier 35%), TET 20% (earlier 15%), PUC/Class 12 8%, Diploma 2% • Integrated teacher education degree: Academic weight cut to 10% from 30%
