Senior teachers’ elevation at stake after HC fiat

CHENNAI: The High Court had already ordered that the promotion of the teachers in the government and government-aided schools should pass the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET), the verdict has created controversy as the elevation of thousands of senior teachers are at stake.

Recently, the court asked the School Education Department to proceed with the promotion counselling by issuing a fresh notification to the post of Bachelor of Teaching (BT) assistants and headmasters in government and government-aided high schools from among qualified teachers, who possess the minimum eligibility criteria of a pass in TET, in the light of Section 23 of the RTE Act, 2009, Rule 16 of the RTE Rules, 2011.

Soon after the court’s verdict, the counselling was suspended and the promotions of thousands of teachers in the state-run schools stalled. A senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next that after several representations from the teachers and its associations, the Tamil Nadu government has promised that it would consult the legal experts and would go for an appeal against the court’s order.

“As the counselling for promotion is due, the authorities concerned were in consultation with the legal team not only to go for an appeal but also get the verdict in favour of the state”, he added.

However, senior teachers in the government high schools claim that TET was not mandatory for them since they were appointed well before the act was enforced in the State. A senior teacher in a high school in the city, seeking anonymity, said that several hundred teachers were on the verge of retirement this year itself. “If the promotion was not given to them, they would lose their seniority and will not get the required retirement benefits”, he added.

Claiming that a few senior teachers went ahead to appear for TET and could not clear it, he said “however, they cannot keep on attempting to write the TET exam as the teachers do not have time to get private training to clear the exam”.

Pointing out that even counselling for mutual and other district transfers of teachers are getting delayed after the court made TET mandatory for promotions, the government school teacher said “the government should take immediate steps to file an appeal against the court’s order to protect the teachers”.

Another teacher in a state-run school on the outskirts of Chennai city pointed out that employees in the state government should not have any specific rules and they could go up to the secretary level without any external qualification.