Agartala, Sep 17 (IANS): The Tripura government is seeking a one-time exemption from conducting a teachers eligibility test (TET) ahead of recruiting over 5,000 teachers, a minister said Tuesday.

Education Minister Tapan Chakraborty told reporters here: "We have approached the union human resource development (HRD) ministry to drop the pre-condition of TET for this time only and allow recruitment of 5,000 teachers."

According to the guidelines of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, the TET is mandatory for recruitment of government teachers.

The minister said when the state started the process to recruit 5,000 teachers and sought applications in 2002, the pre-condition of holding a TET was not in force.

"The HRD ministry recently sought some clarification from the state government and we accordingly replied. We want TET, but only for this time we want a one-time relaxation," he said.

The controversy over the TET began last year after state Congress chief Sudip Roy Barman wrote a letter to the HRD ministry not to give any waiver to the Tripura government on the matter.

"I have informed the union human resource development minister that the Tripura government was trying to ignore the provision of the RTE. Recruitment of teachers without TET would decline the quality of education," Barman said.