‘No one should pursue B.Ed’: Aspirants slam Jharkhand govt for stalling JTET for 9 years

Nearly a decade after the last Jharkhand Teacher Eligibility Test (JTET), teaching aspirants in the state are still waiting for recruitment opportunities. Despite a significant number of vacancies in government schools, the recruitment process was cancelled once again, sparking widespread frustration.

The government’s inaction triggered a wave of criticism on social media, with aspirants launching a Twitter campaign demanding immediate action and conduct of JTET exam 2025.

The concerns of aspirants are not just limited to the conduct of the exam – many candidates, having crossed the upper age limit, fear the prolonged delay may result in disqualification.

In April 2025, the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) told the high court that the results for the appointment of assistant teachers will be announced in the second week of September. The recruitment was held for 26,001 vacancies.

The results for graduate-level trained teachers for Classes 6 to 8 in mathematics, science and social science were scheduled to be announced in July.

3.65 lakh aspirants’ future in limbo

The Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) had announced plans to conduct the JTET exam last year; however, it was later cancelled due to changes in exam rules and inconsistencies in the syllabus. A new notification for JTET 2025 was expected in January 2025, but it has yet to be issued.

Officials have assured that candidates who applied between July 23 and September 26, 2024, will not be required to pay the registration fee again. Approximately 3.65 lakh candidates had registered for last year’s exam, which was subsequently cancelled.

Shockingly, nearly 8,000 state-run schools in Jharkhand are functioning with single teachers, while around 3.81 lakh students have enrolled in these schools. Jharkhand education minister Ramdas Soren recently said that 103 schools in the state are functioning without any students, and yet 17 teachers have been posted in them.

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#Conduct_JTET_exam: Aspirants launch campaign

Aspirants have been flooding X with memes, posters, and slogans under the hashtag #Conduct_JTET_exam. Many have directly tagged Chief Minister Hemant Soren, the Education Minister, local MLAs, and MPs, demanding urgent action to hold the long-delayed JTET exam.

“The JTET exam should have been a regular process. This exam was supposed to be held every year, but in Jharkhand, it has not been conducted even once in the last 9 years, which is an injustice to the future of the youth,” an aspirant, Sandeep Mehta, said.

Tagging the chief minister, another X user wrote: “The last time the #JTET exam was held was in 2016. @HemantSorenJMM ji, please find out whether the TET exam is being conducted every year in every state or not. What are your ministers and officials doing?”

He went on to ask: “Why are they being paid salaries from the public's money when they don’t do their work properly? They don’t even create a proper regulation. If the JTET exam hasn’t been held in your state for 9 years, how will you appoint teachers? Why are you determined to ruin the education system?”

Another X user, Prakash Poddar, founder of Career Foundation wrote: “The condition of schools in the state is deplorable, yet the government is not thinking about teacher recruitment. It has been 9 years since the #JTET exam was conducted in the state, but the government is asleep. The education department should feel a little ashamed. Just hold a press conference and say outright that no one should pursue a B.Ed because there will be no teacher recruitment.”