COIMBATORE: The Directorate of School Education has exempted those teachers, whose appointment process was initiated prior to the notification of National Council for Teachers Education (NCTE) in August, 2010, from appearing for the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET).
In a circular issued to the Chief Education Officers (CEOs), the Joint Director of Directorate of the School Education (employees section) said that teachers, whose appointments were either based on the advertisements issued before the notified date of 23 August, 2010, or their ‘certification verification’ was done before the said date, were exempted from writing the eligibility exam.
“Where an appropriate government or authority of the school has issued an advertisement to initiate the appointment of teachers prior to the date of this notification, then such appointments are made in accordance with NCTE regulations, 2001,” the circular said, citing recommendations of the Teachers Recruitment Board.
“It is not necessary for the teachers to write the exam, even though their appointment was made after the notified date, provided they fall under two of the exemption categories,” said sources, while saying that all posting made prior to the notified date were already exempt.
However, with this new order, no teacher would be actually exempted from clearing the examination. P K Elamaran, State president of TN teachers association, said that all those 3,000 appointments made in 2011 were through direct recruitment based on the registration at the employment office and no announcement was made regarding appointments based on the advertisement.
‘Certification Verification’ was carried out in different segments and the process, for about 500 teachers who were recruited under special category, was done after notified date, he said, adding that those 500 would have to take the exam again, while all other appointments which was made under the same Government Order were exempted.
All those teachers whose appointment procedures - advertisement or certification verification process - were carried out after notified date i.e. in 2011, will have to clear the eligibility exam within five years from their date of appointment, said the sources, explaining that the TRB started conducting the examination from 2012.
Citing that they have not got any further intimation pertaining to the extension of deadline for appointed teachers, the teachers cited that the board conducted the exam, after a period of four years, in 2017, after petitions were filed at the High Court seeking cancellation of the exam.