Tougher questions in TET this year

Hyderabad: The Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), which would be held on Sunday (March 16) across the state, will see no significant change in syllabus but aspirants may have to face some tougher questions in certain sections.

According to the structure of the test, there will be two papers- each carry 150 objective-type questions which carry one mark each.

In Paper I (for I to V classes) there are five sections viz Child Development and Pedagogy; Language-I; Language II; Mathematics and Environmental Sciences, each for 30 marks. In paper II (for VI to VIII classes), there will be four sections only. While the first three are the same as that of paper I, the last one will be for 60 marks and it could be Mathematics, Sciences or Social Studies sot that candidates of Sciences and Arts can choose accordingly.

In both the papers, the paper of child development and pedagogy would be rather crucial and likely to be tough, according to experts. Candidates’ knowledge, application and comprehending abilities will be put to test in a generic way.

“Principles of human development, theories proposed by Chomsky, Carl Rogers, Piazzi, Coal berg and others, personality differences, various child-centric programmes, rules, dos and don’ts shall be studied in depth. The aspirants should have thorough knowledge over the provisions of Right to Education Act, CCE (Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation), National Curriculum Framework of 2005, National Vocational Educational Quality Framework (NVEQF), Skill Development programme and various other programmes of MHRD, CBSE and NCTE,” Dr V Brahmaiah, Coordinator of Rajiv Vidya Mission of Kadapa and an expert on teacher education suggested. “Questions on teaching methodology can also be difficult and the aspirants should focus on plan of education/ teaching, teaching aids, qualities of best teachers, CCE, question paper making and evaluation etc” he advised.

The syllabus of DEd curriculum focusing on Educational Psychology of Teaching and Learning in Classes I to V and above will be enough for child development and pedagogy. The syllabus also focuses on understanding the characteristics, needs and psychology of diverse learners, interaction with learners and the attributes and qualities of a good facilitator of learning.

“TET is mostly an analytical, understanding and application-oriented examination while DSC is just knowledge-based one. Those who mug up the lessons or parts of syllabus cannot crack TET although they may be successful in DSC. The society needs teachers who have understanding and application capabilities. They alone can mould children into competent students who can easily compete national level exams like IIT, if they are coached in an analytical way from their childhood,” Brahmaiah remarked.

After Child Development and Pedagogy, the next important paper will be Telugu (Language-I) in which questions on Telugu grammar, meter will be framed in a difficult way for 24 marks. Questions on the works of several prominent writers of ancient times to the present generation, the poems, verses, prosody will be asked in a different and circumvent way.

Grammar in English is also vital for Language-II paper in which questions are likely to be framed on figures of speech, degrees of comparison, composition, question tags, letter-writing, synonyms and antonyms, error detection, articles, vocabulary etc.

The pass criterion of APTET will be: OCs- 60% and above; BCs- 50% and above; SCs, STs and PH- 40% and above.

It might be recalled that 20% of TET marks will be considered for DSC in making merit list after the DSC exam is over. There is no word from the government when the cancelled DSC would be held. There are nearly 3.5 lakh candidates who have already cracked the TET. This exam would throw up another fifty thousand, it is expected.