The education standards of Sindh have once again been exposed as only 2000 candidates out of 34,000 managed to pass the aptitude test for the post of a junior elementary school teacher (JEST).
This means that a whopping 94 percent of the aspiring teachers couldn’t even pass the test.
The aptitude test was designed by the Sukkur Institute of Business Administration (IBA) and many candidates complained that it was too ‘lengthy’ and ‘very technical.’
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The Education Department of Sindh had announced 6,000 positions for junior elementary school teachers and 1,100 posts for ‘early child teachers’, respectively late last year.
The department conducted tests for the mentioned posts between 11 to 28 November 2018.
The official record of results shows that more than 3,000 candidates had applied, for early child teachers, out of whom only 287 managed to clear the test.
The government now is discussing to either re-advertise the posts or reduce the required pass percentage.
Sukkur IBA has been involved with the hiring process of teachers since 2007. Varsity’s Registrar Zahid Khand was of the opinion that the Sindh government had announced a policy to pass only those who secured 60% or higher, but, unfortunately, the majority of aspiring candidates couldn’t cross the line.
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“We have suggested the government to reduce the pass percentage to 50% or 55% so that more candidates can make the cut,” he said.
Khand also rubbished all the allegations of the test being too difficult stating that it was ‘fairly easy and a large number of failed candidates was an indication of the falling standards of education in the province.’
“We prepared the paper from sixth, seventh and eighth-grade Math, English and Science textbooks. There were also some IT-related questions. The high failure ratio is in no way our fault,” he added.
Via: Tribune