TET Exemption for Teachers Who Joined Before 2010

Chennai: School teachers who were appointed in government schools before August 23, 2010, would be ‘fully and permanently’ exempted from taking the hitherto mandatory Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), State Minister for School Education Minister A Rajmohan said on Tuesday.

Moving a resolution to that effect in the State Assembly on Tuesday, he said TET would not be a requirement for those teachers who came into service after 2010 to retain their positions.

The Minister said there were 3,28,701 government school teachers across the state who were expected to take the TET and ran the risk of losing many of the benefits of their jobs or even their positions if they failed to clear the examination.

Among those teachers were many who had put in 15 to 20 years of service without any interruption and forcing those experienced educators to pass a new examination now was viewed as a threat to their job security and livelihoods, he said.

So the Assembly, through the resolution, urged the Union Government to provide a permanent exemption from the TET for teachers appointed before 23 August 2010, by amending Section 23 of the Right to Education Act 2009 to facilitate the exemption through an official guideline of the National Council for Teacher Education).

That would ensure that the teachers would continue to receive all job benefits, including promotions, without any obstruction," Rajmohan said.