Protest over ‘OTET irregularities’: BSE Odisha seeks tough action against agitating teachers

The Board of Secondary Education (BSE), Odisha has suggested tough action against some teachers who recently participated in a protest outside its office in Cuttack alleging irregularities in the special Odisha Teacher Eligibility Test (OTET).

The in-service primary school teachers hailing from various districts held protests in front of the BSE office located at Bajrakabati Road in Cuttack on January 11 and 12 after they reportedly failed to qualify the special OTET. 

“BSE, Odisha had conducted one OTET Examination only for the in-service primary school teachers. The result of this examination was published on 09.01.2023. After publication of the results, many of those teachers who have not qualified in the test are coming to this office from 11.01.2023 and demonstrating with a demand to qualify them even with additional grace marks,” the BSE stated in a letter to the Director of the Elementary Education. 

“From 11.01.2023 everyday around 200 teachers from all over the state are gathering in front of the BSE office at Bajrakabati Road, Cuttack and shouting slogans with an irrational demand of qualifying them even though they have not scored the qualifying marks,” the BSE added. 

The board said it has uploaded the scoring keys and the OMR answer sheets on its website where everyone can view their results and can verify the correctness in order to maintain transparency.

“Their presence is creating a lot of disturbances in the office work especially when we are going to conduct one OSSTET exam and another OTET exam during this month,” the board said. 

Sharing the photographs and videos of the protest and names of 13 teachers, the board has requested the Director of Elementary Education to take disciplinary action against them for misconduct and dereliction of duty.

“They may be warned not to create such type of nuisance in future,” the board added.

Reported by Jagdish Das, OTV