CHENNAI: Following Kerala’s lead, the Tamil Nadu government will file a review petition in the Supreme Court against its September 1 judgment making the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) mandatory even for those appointed before 2011 as its implementation would “cripple the school education system.”
The apex court had ruled that all teachers, except those with less than five years of service, must clear TET to continue in their jobs, with no exceptions even for promotions. In a statement, the school education department said the state fully supports TET as a compulsory requirement for all future appointments, but imposing it retrospectively on teachers already in service has caused “grave concern.” Thousands of teachers were recruited strictly in line with the laws and rules prevailing at the time of their appointment, it noted.
“If the ruling is implemented in its present form, it will trigger mass compulsory retirements, leaving schools across Tamil Nadu facing unprecedented teacher shortages,” a release said.
Stating that recruiting or training an equivalent number of TET-qualified teachers within the short time frame is “practically impossible,” the department added that such a move would derail classroom teaching, affect the education of lakhs of students and destabilise the school education system.
The review petition will argue that Section 23 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, prescribes minimum qualifications only for new appointments and does not authorise the forced retirement of teachers already in service. It will also cite the NCTE notification dated August 23, 2010, which introduced TET but expressly excluded teachers appointed before that date.
“Retrospective application of TET unsettles the vested rights of lawfully appointed teachers, inflicts disproportionate hardship, and threatens the very stability of the education system,” the department said, assuring that the state government would stand firmly with them.