The decision was taken after prolonged discussion between Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel and Minister of State for Education Anandiben Patel and senior officials of the education department in his official chamber here on Tuesday evening.

Earlier last month, the government had decided to continue the implementation of the ambitious Balguru Yojana introduced by the Vaghela regime to recruit 15,000 unemployed PTC teachers in primary schools in the state. But the present government has renamed the Balguru Yojana as the Shikshan Swayemsevak Yojana.

After the meeting, Anandiben Patel said the change in the eligibility criterion for admission to the PTC course would come into force from the next academic year itself and the two-year PTC course would henceforth be known as Diploma in Education.

She said it would be mandatory for candidates, who have passed out the higher secondary certificate (HSC) board examinations, to compete in an entrance test (an objective question paper of 100 marks) for admission to the Diploma in Education course. After the entrance test, a merits list of successful candidates will be prepared by the education department.

Justifying the change in the eligibility criterion, the minister said, ``Under the earlier practice, candidates could become primary teachers at lower age after passing out the secondary school certificate (SSC) board examination and proved to be too immature and raw to teach difficult subjects like maths and science to primary students.''

Now with the eligibility criterion being raised to two years (from SSC to HSC pass) for such candidates, they will be able to prove themselves as complete teachers, the minister said.

Responding to a query, Anandiben Patel said her department had also decided to produce quality teachers for primary schools by getting tough with the results of Diploma in Education examination in the days to come.

This will also help check the swelling backlog of unemployed primary teachers in the state. The government plans to recruit about 20,000 such teachers in primary schools under the Shikshan Swayamsevak Yojana during the current year.

She reiterated the government's earlier decision to introduce computers as an optional subject in VIII class from the new academic year. To a question, the minister said the HSC examination (Gujarati medium) result would be declared in the second week of June, while that of English medium examination would be announced by the end of June.