MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras HC has held that TET (Teacher Eligibility Test) qualification is mandatory for teachers working in all educational institutions, including minorities-run schools.
A bench comprising justices J Nisha Banu and S Srimathy observed so while allowing an appeal filed by the school education department challenging an order passed by a single judge directing the department to approve the promotion of a teacher of a minority aided school, which was earlier rejected by authorities because she did not have TET qualification.
The division bench held that the Supreme Court case, which the single judge’s order had relied on, never dealt with Section 23 of RTE Act, 2009, under which qualifications for teachers are prescribed. Moreover, the said judgment was later referred to a larger bench and the matter is sub judice.
Therefore, the argument that the entire RTE Act is not applicable to minority institutions is ‘incorrect’. As per an amendment made to RTE Act in 2017, neither the centre nor state has power to grant any exemption from the prescription of basic minimum qualification. As NCTE has prescribed TET as one such qualification, it is applicable to all educational institutions, the judges held.