Rajasthan: School board's chairman DP Jaroli sacked by Gehlot government for REET paper leak

In an unprecedented and historic move, the Ashok Gehlot government, after a high-level midnight meeting on Friday sacked DP Jaroli, the Chairman of the Rajasthan State Board Of Secondary Education (RSBSE) following the leakage of the Rajasthan Eligibility Examination for Teachers (REET) papers.

The state government decided to appoint a retired judge of the High Court to suggest a fool-proof system to conduct the examination again in June this year.

Lakhs of youths appear for this examination to enable them to qualify for becoming teachers at various levels in government-run schools.

Jaroli was sacked because of the question papers' leak prior to the examination and selling of the leaked papers for several crores to criminals who in turn sold the papers among the aspirants appearing in the REET examination. The paper got leaked with the active involvement of the education department’s employees in Shiksha Sankul, the headquarters of the state school education department.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, after reviewing the various reports following the arrests of some persons involved in the entrance exam papers leak and also the criminals involved in selling these examination papers, decided to sack the Chairman for his failure to maintain the sanctity and secrecy of the examination procedures.

The examination of the REET last year was canceled after the discovery that the question papers were leaked. This caused a lot of hardship to the aspirant teachers who had worked hard for preparing for the examination.

Chief Minister Gehlot said that several youths seeking jobs as teachers suffered because of the cancellation of the examination due to the question papers leak. He said the government has taken a very serious view of the failure of the various agencies involved in the examination.

The high-level meeting was attended by the education minister, B D Kalla, additional chief secretary, education Pawan Kumar Goyal, additional chief secretary, Home Abhay Kumar , the director-general of police, M L Lather, and several high police officials.

Rajasthan Eligibility Examination for Teacher (REET), also known as Rajasthan Teacher Eligibility Test (RTET), is a state-level competitive exam which is conducted by the Board of Secondary Education, Rajasthan (BSER) to certify candidates for employment as teachers in the state.

Basically, the REET exam is conducted for the recruitment of teachers for two different levels, namely Level I or Primary Teacher and Level II or Upper Primary Teacher. Thus, those who clear REET become eligible for the post of teachers in classes 1-5 and classes 6-8 in schools and educational institutions of the state. Further, as per the updated rules declared by the Rajasthan government, only Basic School Teaching Certificate (BSTC) holders are allowed to appear in the REET Level-1 examination.

The minimum age criteria for taking the REET exam is 18 years while there is no maximum age criteria. The exam are conducted offline and there is no negative marking.

Chairman of the Board of Secondary Education, Rajasthan (BSER) DP Jaroli, was under fire for the leakage of the question papers. Jaroli was found guilty of involving inefficient persons in conducting the examination in which 16 lakh persons appeared statewide in September last year. Now a re-examination has been ordered following the discovery of leakage and selling of the question papers. The police while investigating the case, found that the leaked question papers were sold for Rs 1.3 crores in which the main accused is one Ram Kripal Meena, who stole the question papers from the strong room of the education department and sold it to the criminals who were later arrested by the police.