Since the appointments had to be made before the code of conduct for Lok Sabha elections comes into force, the state government had ordered the education officers to rush through the procedure.

Achla Khanna, Director of the State Council of Educational Research and Training, which is co-ordinating the exercise, confirmed that the District Institutes of Educational Training (DIET) have been asked to make all recruitment as early as February 10. "If some candidates could not participate in the selection process, it can be extended, but the exercise has to be completed as soon as possible," she said. The number of teachers, to be appointed in all district institutes, will be around 24,000, she added.

The Mayawati government had created 80,000 posts of basic teachers soon after it took over in 2007.

Rakesh Srivastava, Basic Education Officer of Lucknow, said: "We have made the list of vacancies and will try to issue all appointment letters by February 10. Almost all counselling was done today and those who were absent can appear before the selection committee on Tuesday morning."

Candidates who have done a Basic Teacher Certificate (BTC) course are offered government jobs without any test or interview.

The recruitment is being made from the 2001 and 2007 batches of BTC course. The procedure, which normally takes a month, has been cut short to days, in particular for the 2001 batch which had been the subject of a controversy.

Around 5,600 candidates had cleared the entrance examination and undergone training for the BTC that year, during the previous Mayawati regime. But the next government, headed by Mulayam Singh, cancelled their admission alleging anomalies.

The candidates then went to court, which asked the government to conduct a qualifying test and make appointments on basis of performance.

The test took place on February 1, 2009, and the results were announced in a record five days. The government then ordered the DIETs to appoint around 5,500 BTC 2001 candidates and around 23,000 special BTC 2007 candidates by February 10, officials said.

Normally, the department places an advertisement, announcing the dates of the counselling when the candidates' papers are scrutinised by a selection committee. No one is sure if and when an advertisement was taken out this time. One of the officials said probably it was published on February 8 to start the appointment process from February 9 and complete it by February 10. The members of the selection committees were hurriedly contacted on Monday and told to report in the afternoon for the selection.