Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to conduct the Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) only once a year unlike the old practice of conducting the examination twice a year.
A senior official commented if all major competitive exams are to be conducted once a year, then why should CTET or National Eligibility Test (NET) be conducted twice a year. This massive-scale exercise which requires huge resources in some way reduces the seriousness of candidates since they don't have the fear of wasting a year, he added.
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He further added that CBSE is likely to conduct CTET and NET till the proposed National Testing Service (NTS) is set up by the govt. which take over all the procedures and processes of conducting all the examinations. The CTET exam is an eligibility test for recruiting teachers from class 1 to class 8.
The CBSE Board has been conveying to the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry that it is overburdened with the responsibility to conduct multiple exams including the examination ( JEE Mains , NEET ,etc.) held for undergraduate engineering and medical courses respectively every year. Thus, the board had recently proposed to get rid of the practice for conducting the (NET), organised for recruiting assistant professors, twice every year.
The official informed that after discussing this with officials from the HRD Ministry, the CBSE, and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), the decision has been made to conduct CTET only once.
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Though exact registration date or exam date has not been disclosed yet, candidates are still advised not to get anxious until an official update notification is given. Currently, the exam is conducted twice a year in the months of September and February. Around 9 lakh aspirants register for the test each year.