TET Not Mandatory For Some Teachers: Madras HC

June 29, 2023, 10:59 a.m.

The Madras High Court, in a recent verdict declared that teachers who were appointed as secondary grade teachers or graduate teachers / B.T. Assistants in the state before 29th July, 2011 must be allowed to continue their service and receive increments, as well as incentives, even if they had not cleared the Teachers Eligibility Test.

The court, however, made it clear that the teachers must clear TET for their promotional prospects.

According to sources, Justice R. Mahadevan and Justice Mohammed Shaffiq, struck down a 2020 rule that prescribed a pass in Teachers Eligibility Test only for direct recruitment to the post of B.T. Assistants and not for promotions.The bench of Judges made it clear that the teachers must clear TET for their promotional prospects, stating that TET must be made mandatory even for promotion to the post of B.T. Assistants from a secondary grade teacher post, and for further promotion to the post of headmaster.

Authoring the 132-page verdict, Justice Mahadevan said, “the National Council for Teacher Education had issued a notification on August 23, 2010, laying down the minimum qualifications for teachers of Classes I to VIII. The notification was issued under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. Subsequently, on 29th July 2011, the National Council for Teacher Education made certain amendments to the notification and made Teachers Eligibility Test compulsory for all those who teach students of Class I to Class VIII.”

Since several disputes had arisen pertaining to the notification, with hundreds of teachers facing the threat of losing their jobs because of non-clearance of TET, the bench made it clear that all those appointed before July 29, 2011, would be exempted from clearing TET only for the purpose of continuance in their post as teachers without promotions.