The Supreme Court on Friday said that clearing the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) is mandatory for in-service teachers and has extended the last date for clearing the exam to August 31, 2028, so that they remain in service.A bench of Justices Dipankar Dutta and Manmohan dismissed more than 65 review petitions filed by state governments, teachers’ associations and individual teachers against the court’s earlier judgment in the Anjuman Prashya Shikham Trust case.The petitioners had challenged the 2025 decision which said that in-service teachers appointed before the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, and with more than five years remaining before retirement, must complete TET within two years from September 1, 2025.The court, refusing to change its earlier position, extended the deadline by one more year. “The TET examination should be conducted by the concerned authorities at the earliest and as the time and resources required for the same are limited, we change and extend the timeline by 2 to 3 years,” the bench said. The court clarified that the teachers will now have to get qualified by August 31, 2028 instead of August 31, 2027.The bench also made it clear that no further extension would be granted.Rejecting the argument that the rule amounts to retrospective application of the law, the court held that the RTE Act clearly requires even in-service teachers to acquire a minimum qualification within a specified period.“The Legislature intended that in-service teachers also meet the prescribed minimum,” the court said.The Supreme Court also ruled that exemptions granted by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) through notification or subordinate legislation cannot violate the Parental Act.The bench said that allowing teachers to continue indefinitely without TET qualification would affect the quality of education. The court said that the services of the teachers cannot come at the cost of the educational future of the children.The petitioners had argued that teachers appointed before the 2011 amendments to the RTE Act and the NCTE Act should not be forced to complete TET midway through their careers. He also said that implementation of this rule could lead to large number of teachers losing their jobs and disrupting school education.Acknowledging these concerns, the Court held that continuity in elementary education required a pragmatic approach. However, he emphasized that the law is child-centric and focuses on ensuring quality education.The court also directed the states and competent authorities to conduct TET examinations regularly, preferably twice a year with a gap of about six months, so that qualified teachers get ample opportunity to qualify.
