Teachers’ test to be held in 20 languages

We had held a meeting few days back and it was decided that it will continue in all the languages as was done previously. I have directed the CBSE to make the necessary changes. PRAKASH JAVADEKAR, Union HRD minister

NEW DELHI: The Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) will be conducted in 20 Indian languages this year as has been the norm, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Monday.

The minister’s announcement comes amid a controversy over the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) earlier decision to drop 17 languages including Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Gujarati and Bengali from the list of languages in which candidates could give the exam.

The Central Board of Secondary Education, which conducts the test mandatory for teacher appointments in central government schools and private institutions affiliated to the board, had limited the language options to Hindi, Sanskrit and English.

“We had held a meeting few days back and it was decided that it will continue in all the languages as was done previously. I have directed the CBSE to make the necessary changes. There is no confusion regarding this,” the minister said .

DMK leader Kanimozhi had taken to Twitter to express her anger at the board’s earlier decision, which she said will hamper the prospects of those candidates that speak regional languages.

“The decision to drop Tamil and 16 other regional languages from Central Teacher Eligibility Test is highly condemnable and strikes at the root of federalism. Students of CBSE whose mother tongue is Tamil will be put to a great disadvantage without teachers,” she had said.