The controversy over the Tamil Nadu Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) recruitment exam for assistant teachers has intensified, with AIADMK calling for an independent and thorough investigation into the recently announced findings.The TRB declared the results of the written examination on June 25 for the recruitment of 2,708 assistant professors in government arts and science colleges. In a statement issued on Sunday, the general secretary of the AIADMK Edappadi K Palaniswami alleged that there were numerous irregularities in the evaluation of the descriptive document.“Reports indicate that 42 candidates who scored exceptionally high in the objective section were awarded ‘0’ marks in the descriptive paper, while 106 candidates received only ‘1’. In particular, a candidate from the Tamil department who scored 111 out of 150 in the objective test was given a zero in the essay section,” he said.He also stated that some candidates who scored very low in the objective paper were awarded up to 49 out of 50 points in the descriptive section, significantly changing the final ranking of merit.Questioning the evaluation process, the former chief minister said: “This clearly reflects an inconsistent and biased evaluation process,” adding that it was difficult to understand how a candidate who scored more than 100 points in the objective paper could receive zero in the descriptive section, or vice versa.He also alleged that mismanagement over the years had left more than 50 percent of assistant professor posts and several principal posts vacant. He claimed that this had contributed to a fall in higher education enrollment from 51.4 percent during the AIADMK government in 2019-20 to 47 percent.The party has urged the Tamil Nadu government to immediately cancel the current TRB assistant teacher exam results and order a full independent inquiry into the alleged irregularities. He also called for strict legal action against all those found guilty of malpractice.The recruitment exam was held last December after a gap of almost 25 years. According to TRB sources, 42,064 candidates appeared for the test, which included an objective section of 150 marks and a descriptive writing essay of 50 marks.
