Education minister Sakina Itoo on Wednesday said that there was no immediate plan to conduct teacher eligibility test (TET) in Jammu and Kashmir. Itoo said that the Supreme Court has given a two year time period for its implementation.
“When it will be implemented in the whole of India, J&K will be the last place to implement it,” Itoo told the media after an order by the school education department making JKBOSE as the nodal agency for conducting the test caused a flutter among various circles.
In September 2025, the Supreme Court made it mandatory for in-service teachers of classes 1 to 8 in non-minority schools to clear the TET within two years.
In a recent order issued by the School Education Department, Civil Secretariat, the Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (JKBOSE) and State School Standards Authority (SSSA) has been designated as the nodal agency for conducting the TET across the Union territory.
“I saw there was an order (by the education department) and that order won’t be implemented. The Supreme Court has given two years time for its implementation,” the minister said.
Itoo said that when the SC issued the order a few months back, she decided to see which states and UTs implement it and on what pattern after the file came to her for discussion. “I had said that we can’t do this immediately and we will check its ramifications and also see how the test is done outside,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}Itoo said that when the SC issued the order a few months back, she decided to see which states and UTs implement it and on what pattern after the file came to her for discussion. “I had said that we can’t do this immediately and we will check its ramifications and also see how the test is done outside,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}She questioned the rationale of subjecting the teachers to the test, who gave decades of their lives into teaching.
“I don’t think its implementation is immediately appropriate. The teachers who gave 20-30 years of their lives into teaching and it is the result of their teaching that today we see doctors, engineers, IAS, KAS, professors or teachers. Today we are saying that such teachers need to give this test,” she said.
She said that in former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s time, the then education minister Naeem Akhtar had also started a test for ReTs.
She said that the government will implement it at its own pace.”For the time being there is no immediate need of the test and when this is implemented in all the states or there is a further order by the SC. We will see then and we don’t need to implement it right now,” she said.