Govt revamps TRB in bid to improve efficiency

To fast track the recruitment of teachers and to avoid mal-practices, the Tamil Nadu government has revamped and restructured the Teachers Recruitment Board(TRB) in line with the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC). The board will now have

an IAS officer as controller of examinations and the secretary of human resource management, the commissioners of school education and technical education and the director of collegiate education as the four ex-officio members. It will also have two school education directors as members.

The ratio of shortlisting of candidates has been revised to 1:1.25 for all recruitments to limit the scrutiny

of documents and litigation. According to the government order dated January 3, 2023, issued by school education secretary Kakarla Usha, recruitment of teachers for schools, colleges, polytechnics and universities will be conducted by the TRB. So far, the state universities. used to recruit assistant professors.

“Whatever the TRB was following was obsolete and did not cater to the present day needs. Earlier. TRB used to carry out only certificate verification of the candidates sponsored by employment exchanges on seniority basis. Then competitive exams were introduced using OMR sheets and TRB shifted to computer-based tests after scams were unearthed,” a source from the state government said.

The government order also permitted increase in the staff strength of the board by 71. They will include programmers, data analysts, data administrators. The controller of examinations will be in charge of the confidential section, examinations, certificate verification and library TRB will have an exclusive building, a third-party audit for computer-based tests and a new committee to improve the question bank.” the source added.

To improve the exams, it plans to revise the syllabus every five years, prepare question banks using experts from top institutes such as the IIT. The government also accepted the proposal to provide a digitized grievance redress mechanism for submitting complaints 24X7, set up district exam monitoring committees, a system to monitor legal cases,and to raise exam fees every three years.

The state government had formed a committee to suggest ways and means to improve the standard of the Teachers Recruitment Board.

The committee submitted its report with 39 recommendations. The state government accepted the recommendations with slight modifications.