Teachers’ body seeks permanent TET exemption for pre-2010 appointees

Citing a Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly resolution, Delhi Government Schools Teachers’ Association (GSTA), a teachers’ union, has urged Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi to grant teachers appointed before 2010 a full and permanent exemption from the mandatory Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) and consider their long years of experience as an alternative

Citing a Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly resolution, Delhi Government Schools Teachers’ Association (GSTA), a teachers’ union, has urged Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi to grant teachers appointed before 2010 a full and permanent exemption from the mandatory Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) and consider their long years of experience as an alternative.

TET is one of the minimum qualifications prescribed under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009.

On August 25, the Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a resolution urging the Centre to grant a “full and permanent” exemption from the TET to government school teachers appointed before August 23, 2010. TET is one of the minimum qualifications prescribed under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, and is mandatory for appointment as a teacher in schools covered under the Act.

Following the Act, the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) introduced TET in 2011, and teachers recruited earlier were asked to clear the test.

In a review judgment on May 29, 2026, the Supreme Court extended the deadline to acquire TET qualification from August 31, 2027, to August 31, 2028.

“GSTA most humbly requests the government to provide a one-time permanent exemption to in-service teachers appointed before August 23, 2010, in accordance with the recruitment rules and qualifications then prevailing, from the requirement of qualifying TET for continuation in service,” read the letter dated August 25.