The Supreme Court on Friday (May 29, 2026) gave teachers who are currently in-service an extension of one more year to pass the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET), taking into consideration the importance of ensuring continuity in the elementary education of children. The original deadline for teachers to obtain the TET qualification was August 31, 2027, and has now been extended to August 31, 2028.
The limited relief for in-service teachers without TET qualification came in a series of petitions to review a September 1, 2025 judgment which had set the original deadline.
The court further directed States and competent authorities to conduct the TET periodically, preferably twice every year, interspersed with an approximate period of six months between successive examinations, to allow eligible teachers a reasonable opportunity to comply with the statutory requirement.
The court made it “abundantly clear” that it would not entertain any more pleas from in-service teachers for any further extension of time to gain the TET qualification.
Justice Dipankar Datta, who authored the judgment, noted that more than one-and-a-half decades have passed since the Right to Education (RTE) Act had prescribed the TET qualification for teachers.
“The period of 15 years could be considered more than sufficient time for a teacher to acquire the TET qualification,” Justice Datta said.
Rejecting the plea that a continued insistence on TET would push several thousand teachers out of service, the top court said that allowing unqualified educators to continue in their jobs would impact the educational future of generations to come.
“The RTE Act is a child-centric legislation and must be read so. Service of teachers cannot come at the cost of the educational future of the children,” Justice Datta reasoned.
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The court said the limited relief of an extended deadline till August 31, 2028 was a move to strike a balance between these concerns.
“While the requirement of qualifying TET cannot be diluted in its rigour, we cannot remain oblivious to the practical repercussions that may ensue if a substantial number of in-service teachers are put in jeopardy, due to the possible loss of their employment within a truncated time-frame, thereby adversely affecting the functioning of schools and, more importantly, the educational welfare of children at large,” Justice Datta acknowledged.
The court rejected an argument by the review petitioners, represented by several lawyers including advocate Tomy Chacko, that the TET qualification mandated in the RTE Act cannot be implemented retrospectively.
“It neither invalidates past appointments retrospectively nor visits existing teachers with immediate disqualification. On the contrary, both the original enactment and its amendment [in 2017] are premised upon legislative recognition of existing appointments while simultaneously stipulating a time-bound mechanism for securing minimum qualifications in the larger interest of maintaining standards in elementary education,” the court said.
The court said the rigour of a TET qualification cannot be seen as the imposition of a new condition of service.
“We sympathise with the teachers who figure as review petitioners, in as much, they could face difficulties highlighted by them. However, a perceived sense of insecurity is not a sufficient reason for this Court to take a re-look at the matter again,” the court said.
Published - May 29, 2026 10:51 pm IST
Source: The Hindu - India News
