Grace marks usually bring cheer to students, but this time around there was a role reversal. On the first day of the year, aspiring teachers got a message that they had got grace marks, which made them eligible to obtain the Karnataka Teacher Eligibility Test (KarTET) certificate.
The certificate is mandatory if they want to be employed in government, aided and private schools.
As many as 2,819 candidates are now eligible to become teachers as the Department of Public Instruction decided to give four grace marks (each question was for one mark) in paper 1 (to teach classes I to V) and two grace marks (each question one mark) to those who appeared for paper 2 (to teach classes VI to VIII) after it was found that there was no clarity over answers to certain questions.
The decision to award grace marks to candidates who wrote the first KarTET was taken on December 16 after a meeting convened by Commissioner for Public Instruction Mohammad Mohsin.
For those who attempted questions
Mr. Mohsin, however, said that only those candidates who had attempted the relevant questions were awarded grace marks. Acknowledging that there was delay in announcing grace marks, he said that some candidates had approached the High Court seeking relief.
The news has brought smiles to the candidates, who wrote the exam on June 22, and were dejected after seeing the results in August 2014.
Mamata, a 22-year-old B.Ed. graduate from Kolar, missed qualifying by one mark.
“I thought my dreams of becoming a teacher had reached a dead end. But this news has come as a pleasant surprise,” she said, adding that she aspires to teach in a government school.
Over 3.86 lakh candidates appeared for the examinations. Only 22,899 candidates cleared the exams (pass percentage 5.93 per cent). With the grace marks, the pass percentage has risen to 6.66 per cent.
