Teacher aspirants to return TET certificates

TET certificates of over 60,000 teaching aspirants who appeared for the qualification exam in 2013 will expire in December. Besides them, certificates of about 20,000 teachers who appeared before 2013 have already expired.

While the School Education Department has orally proposed to provide a one-year extension in validity of the TET certificates, teachers are demanding lifetime validity.

Rejecting the government’s proposal to extend validity for just one more year, M Elangovan, State convener, Tamil Nadu 2013 TET Cleared Teachers Welfare Association told DT Next that despite several promises given by the authorities to provide jobs for several thousand teaching aspirants who have completed TET and have remained on the waitlist for several years, nothing has been done so far.

It would be difficult for them to appear for TET once again, he said. “All our members have decided to return our TET certificates to the district education officers,” he said.

“To begin with, about 1,000 aspirants whose TET certificate will expire shortly have decided to give their credentials back to the government. If officials refuse to receive it, we will send our certificates through post,” he said.

A senior official from the School Education Department said the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has instructed all States that candidates must renew their TET certificate every seven years in order to keep themselves updated to the latest developments and requirements and fit for teaching profession.

The State government has only limited powers in this regard, and can only extend the validity of TET certificate by just one or two years – that too after taking permission from NCTE, he added.

Also, pointing out that the aspirants who have cleared the test might be given one more chance to appear for the exams, the official said TET should have been conducted in June if not for the pandemic lockdown. But now the test has been postponed indefinitely.

The official added that from 2011-12 to 2019-20, the State government has recruited 49,214 candidates for various teaching posts, including teachers in government schools.