Shillong, November 25
Hundreds of primary school teachers under the banner of All Meghalaya Primary School Teacher Association(AMPSTA) took part along with thousands of primary school teachers from different states in the mass protest at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi against the mandatory implementation of the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) for primary school teachers.

Led by AMPSTA general secretary, F.C Shullai and president, Dipak Marak, primary school teachers from Meghalaya joined the dharna organised by the All India Primary Teachers Federation (AIPTF) in the national capital on Monday to oppose the Supreme Court ruling on 1st September, 2025 which stated that all primary school teacher must pass the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) within two years.

The teachers also demanded the reimplementation of the old pension scheme (OPS) for the benefits of the primary school teachers.

All representatives of various teachers associations who spoke at Jantar Mantar strongly opposed the mandatory implementation of TET and extended their full support to the AIPTF.

The AIPTF has warned of organising a mass rally in front of Parliament if the Central government fails to review the TET issue while seeking the attention and intervention of the Central government to protect the interest of millions of primary school teachers by introducing a special law in the Lok Sabha to provide job security to current teachers, and enforce that the TET requirement is only for future appointment of teachers, without retroactive application of the Supreme Court order.

According to the Apex Court judgment, in-service teachers, who had joined their schools much before the introduction of TET in 2010, and having more than 5 years of service remaining, inspite of completing the teachers’ training courses prescribed by NCTE, shall have to pass the TET within a time frame of two years, or must suffer with untimely retirement.

The protesting teachers stated that the RTE Act which was passed in the year 2009 and came into effect since the year 2010, brought some changes not only in the process of admission of students, but also in the policy of teacher recruitment.
According to the RTE Act, the Central Ministry of Education or the erstwhile Union HRD Ministry, authorised the NCTE to frame the norms of minimum qualification of teachers, which was done in the year 2011.

Following the guidelines of RTE 2009, the NCTE introduced the TET and published its guideline in February, 2011. The minimum qualification for appearing in the TET also varied from time to time.

“New rules displaced the old ones, but nowhere in the guidelines of the NCTE, it was vindicated that the teachers appointed before the introduction of TET would have to compulsorily clear the TET. It was compulsory for new recruitment only as the guideline for minimum qualification included the DLEd or B.Ed training,” the teachers said.

Further, the AIPTF recalled that though the Union HRD Ministry and the Supreme Court passed the direction that all teachers teaching in schools of West Bengal must complete the teachers’ training courses within 2019, but at that time also, the question that all teachers appointed before 2010 must complete TET, did not arise at all.

Terming the TET concept as nothing but an “evil attempt” on the part of the Central Government wanting to concentrate power in its hands and to impose the design of the Central government upon all states without any regard to the federal character and uneven development of the education in different states and regions in the country.

“Education was in state list after Independence and after few years, the Central government in various ways brought education in the concurrent list. Now the Central Govt is framing one after another policy in the field of education, unilaterally. The concept of autonomy and democratic education has been being buried,” the AIPTF alleged.

“From the Radhakrishnan commission to NEP 2020, none of the education commissions proposed to terminate an in-service teacher before superannuation. The spirit of the Article 12(A) of the NCTE, 2011 Amendment, which was supposed to safeguard the interest of the already in-service teachers is being grossly violated,” the AIPTF added.

Accusing the Central government of wanting to handover the entire public education system to private investors, the AIPTF said, “Their silence on this TET issue unmask that truth. If teachers suffer, common people also will be deprived. For the interest of education and in order to secure our service, all of us will have to unite and build up mighty movement.”