Chennai: Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) certificates issued to aspirants will now be valid for a lifetime following a resolution passed in a National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) meeting on September 28.
According to The Times of India, the resolution said, “The provision would have prospective effect and for those who already have a TET certificate, NCTE will take a legal opinion and act accordingly.” The move would ensure livelihood for teachers, said Tamil Nadu Teachers Association president PK Ilamaran.
The order comes after nearly 80,000 TET qualified teachers appealed for an extension of validity to the state government, in lieu of the pandemic.
Asking the Centre and state governments to give lifetime validity to candidates who have already cleared TET, M Elangovan, state co-ordinator of 2013 TNTET Qualified Welfare Association, said, “More than 1.3 lakh candidates qualified in the past five TET exams conducted by Teachers Recruitment Board and around one lakh are yet to get jobs. The seven-year validity was not correct as other qualifying tests such as UGC-NET are valid for a lifetime.”
He also mentioned that only relaxation of the current age limit for recruiting teachers would make the extension on validity more meaningful. “In the past six years, there has been no recruitment of secondary grade teachers and by fixing an age limit, they eliminate a large number of qualified candidates. So the state government should withdraw the order,” he said.