Mumbai, June 28 (IANS) Teachers in Maharashtra, who had prepared for the now postponed Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) 2026, said on Sunday that they had put in hard work for the exam while simultaneously working for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the Census during the day.

The Maharashtra State Council of Examinations (MSCE) abruptly postponed the examination on Saturday, after a joint raid by the Bhiwandi police exposed a major question paper leak just a day before the state-wide examination.

Speaking to IANS, an aspirant Girish Patil in Maharashtra’s Dhule, said: “Due to the exam paper leak, the candidates are extremely disappointed. All the teachers had worked hard in the blistering heat during the month of May for TET 2026 exam. The teachers had prepared for the exam while undertaking visits for Census-related work and working as Booth Level Officers (BLOs) for SIR.”

“In Maharashtra, schools reopened on June 15 this year. Teachers had prepared for that too. Despite all this, the candidates worked hard for the exam but due to the paper leak their entire effort has been wasted,” he added.

School teachers have been appointed as BLOs to assist the Election Commission of India (ECI) for the SIR of electoral rolls. They are also deployed as enumerators and are required to conduct house visits for Census 2027.

Patil appealed the state government to conduct an impartial probe into the incident and take strict action against the guilty.

A primary teacher, Kiran Patil, called instances of paper leak a “disappointment” for the democracy, saying “such incidents are extremely wrong, wherever it happens in the country”.

“First of all, conducting exams for teachers despite so many years of their experience is itself unfair,” he added.

Kiran Patil echoed, saying: “Now, teachers are involved in so many works like SIR, Census… even after that so many teachers worked hard and prepared for the exam and then the exam paper got leaked. This is so wrong.”

Condemning the incident, he, too, urged the Maharashtra government to conduct a thorough probe and to take care that such incidents do not get repeated.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday ordered the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to launch a thorough probe into the alleged irregularities into the TET examination which was scheduled to be held in the state on Sunday.

–IANS

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