CHENNAI: In the wake of Tamil Nadu deciding to file a review petition against the Supreme Court's order for mandatory Teachers' Eligibility Test (TET) for in-service staff, the members of Tamil Nadu Elementary Teachers Organisations-Joint Action Committee (TETO-JAC) met the Minister for School Education Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi here on Saturday.

A TETO-JAC member told DT Next, "We welcome the TN government's decision to file a review petition against the SC's order. While no other government staff is forced to write an exam during their service and, importantly, after having cleared the necessary exams while joining, it is unclear why government teachers are expected to do so."

Additionally, forcing the teachers to quit in case of not clearing the TET will affect both the teachers and students, respectively, and the state government will be burdened to hire necessary teachers.

On September 1, the SC ruled that TET will be non-negotiable for new teacher appointments and those in-service. More importantly, teachers across India, appointed before the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, who have more than five years of service pending, will have to clear TET in two years.

The teachers who were unable to clear TET within the stipulated time will be forced to face compulsory or voluntary retirement. This order of the SC will be applicable to teachers who take classes for students from 1 to 8.

Meanwhile, the TET exam was announced by the TN government in August. About 4.80 lakh applications have been received for papers I and II to be held on September 15 and 16 in the state, respectively.