Telangana | What is DSC, why are its aspirants demanding postponement? 

Know the reasons for the protest by aspirants seeking postponement of DSC exam.

The District Selection Committee, or DSC, is Telangana government’s teacher recruitment test for posts in the categories of Secondary Grade Teacher and School Assistants in local body schools, as per preference exercised by candidates, districts and vacancies wise.

The Telangana government released the DSC notification on February 29 this year for 11,062 posts in various teacher categories. The previous notification, along with test schedule, was released by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi government in September 2023 for 5,089 posts. However, the test was postponed due to the Model Code of Conduct for the State Assembly elections held in November last year.

Official figures show that 2,79,957 candidates applied for the 11,062 various posts now. A total of 100 marks – 80 marks are drawn from DSC and 20% weightage is drawn from Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) to arrive at merit list.

Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) is an online test for eligible candidates, such as those possessing qualifications of Diploma in elementary education, Diploma of education, Bachelor of Education and Language Pandit, intending to be teachers for classes 1 to 8 in government and private schools. Paper 1 is for candidates intending to be teachers for classes 1 to 5 and paper 2 for classes of 6 to 8.

About 6.29 lakh candidates (3,51,468 for Paper 1 and 2,77,844 for paper 2) registered for the test. For a total of 150 marks, a general candidate must get 60% to pass the test. A candidate’s TET score is valid for life and can be improved in a re-attempt.

As per the existing rule, TET is conducted once a year. In line with the National Council for Teacher Education, the Telangana government amended this rule for conducting it twice in a year – June and December – last week.

Scenes and songs of protest, heightened police presence and almost everyday detentions of aspirants, according to Bharat Rashtra Samithi, its student wing and othersin Osmania University and elsewhere in Hyderabad brings back the sad memories of the separate Statehood movement.