The recent order of the Supreme Court making the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) compulsory for all teachers, including serving teachers, has triggered widespread anxiety among more than one lakh teachers across Maharashtra.
Teachers Fear Job Loss
As per the judgment, those teachers who have not cleared the TET will have to clear it in the next two years to continue their employment or else they will be compulsory retired. Even junior teachers with service of less than five years will have to clear the test to become promotion-worthy. The judgment has come as a major shock to the teaching profession, especially to senior teachers who were appointed prior to 2013 when the TET was implemented.
Associations Seek Clarity
The Maharashtra Progressive Teachers Association (MPTA) and Shikshak Bharti Association have voiced strong opposition, urging the state government to clarify its position on the matter. According to media reports, MPTA president Tanaji Kamble warned that letting senior teachers go will be a huge loss to the school education system, while Shikshak Bharti’s Subhash More cautioned that more than one lakh teachers could lose their jobs, creating a severe shortage in government-run and aided schools.
Political Intervention
Shiv Sena MLA J.M. Abhyankar has come to the help of the teachers. Abhyankar has written to Shiv Sena MP Anil Desai and other Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members asking them to press the Central Government to make an ordinance. He has proposed adding sub-section (3) to Section 23 of the RTE Act, 2009, to exempt currently serving school teachers from the compulsory TET until Parliament makes a change in the law.
Calls for State Intervention
Teachers' associations have pointed out that, being on the Concurrent List, education is within the jurisdiction of the state government, and relief can be provided. They are demanding that the government desist from enforcing the SC directive rigidly and instead safeguard the interests of in-service teachers. A statewide convention organised by Shikshak Bharti decided to pen a letter to Chief Justice of India Bhushan Gavai, requesting a reconsideration of the verdict.
