Relief for 80K teachers as TET certificate to be valid for lifetime

Earlier, the NCTE instructed all states that candidates must renew their certificates by appearing for the TET exam every seven years in order to keep themselves updated.

However, a senior official from the Tamil Nadu Teachers Recruitment Board, which conducts TET, said that as of now, extending the validity of the TET certificate would not have a retrospective effect immediately and NCTE has decided to take legal opinion on those who have already passed. “They (NCTE) might bring in improvement tests after extending the validity of the TET certificate,” he added.

The official said once the NCTE official announcement comes in connection with the validity extension of the TET certificate, the State will also amend the rule accordingly.

Despite several requests from teachers, the State government repeatedly rejected their plea and said it would try to extend the validity of the TET just by one year. At present, TET certificates of over 60,000 teaching aspirants who appeared for the qualification exam in 2013 will expire in December. Besides, certificates of about 20,000 teachers who appeared before 2013 have already expired.

Hailing the NCTE’s decision, Tamil Nadu Teachers Association, the largest government teacher’s forum president P K Ilamaran said the national council’s move will give a new lease of life to over 80,000 teaching aspirants, who want to get jobs in government and government-aided schools.