Chennai: Following several litigations against the recruitment exam and complaints over marking in the descriptive-type questions, the higher education department is planning to reform the assistant professors’ recruitment exam to make the recruitment process faster and smoother. In the future exams, the descriptive-type questions are likely to be dropped.“We want to reform the assistant professors’ recruitment exam. We will come out with a revised exam pattern which will address the concerns raised by the candidates. The next recruitment exam will be conducted based on revised exam pattern,” an official from the higher education department said.“The descriptive-type questions may not feature in the future exams. TRB also will be empowered to conduct recruitment of college faculty members in a smooth manner. The reforms will aim at less complications, less litigations and faster recruitment,” the official added.The Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) conducted the assistant professors’ recruitment exam to fill 2,708 vacancies in the govt arts and science colleges on Dec 27 last year. As many as 42,064 candidates appeared for the exam.Though the board released the results for all subjects on June 25, it is yet to shortlist candidates for interview due to the ongoing litigations questioning the methodology to award marks for descriptive-type questions as several candidates alleged they were given low scores. Madras High Court also stayed the recruitment process.A high-level committee which scrutinised the answer sheets of candidates did not find any lapses in the evaluation, sources said.As many as 96,477 students have enrolled in 181 govt arts and science colleges during the 2026-27 academic year. These students are unlikely to get new faculty members before Dec.“TRB has to analyse and give marks to experience of all 42,000 candidates before shortlisting candidates for interview. This process will take two months to three months. Then, TRB will conduct interview for the recruitment of assistant professors,” an official from TRB said.Candidates urge the state govt to make Teachers Recruitment Board into a competent and autonomous recruitment body.“The descriptive-type questions should be asked from their relevant subjects instead of general topics. Further, the state govt should video record the entire interview process to rule out any malpractices,” said S Swaminathan, adviser to the NET SLET Association.
