Kolkata, Sept. 23 -- Teachers' associations are seeking exemption from the mandatory Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) for eligible in-service teachers, with one such body urging the West Bengal government to pass a unanimous resolution in the Assembly and take up the matter with the Centre.
The All Post Graduate Teachers' Welfare Association (APGTWA) has written to School Education Minister Dipak Barman seeking a special discussion in the Assembly and a resolution to protect the service of teachers affected by the Supreme Court's TET ruling.
The demand comes after the School Education Department, in a September 11 directive, asked the West Bengal Central School Service Commission (WBSSC) and the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) to make arrangements for conducting TET for in-service teachers at the earliest and periodically thereafter, preferably at intervals of about six months.
The directive followed the Supreme Court's September 1, 2025 judgment that in-service teachers covered by the Right to Education Act, 2009, and having more than five years of service remaining must qualify TET to continue in service.
"After the Supreme Court judgment on TET, teachers at all levels in the state are anxious and concerned," said Chandan Garai, secretary of the APGTWA.
The association has cited the steps taken by Tamil Nadu and Jammu and Kashmir, where resolutions were passed seeking exemption from mandatory TET for teachers appointed before the relevant norms came into force. It has urged West Bengal to follow a similar route and subsequently approach the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) and the Centre for necessary legal and administrative measures.
The association has also sought that the recruitment examination through which teachers were appointed before the implementation of the TET requirement be considered equivalent to TET for the purpose of protecting their jobs.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.