The Teachers Eligibility Test certification will now be valid for a lifetime, for all those who have achieved the qualification since the test was introduced in 2011, the Education Ministry said on Thursday.
The certification is a minimum qualification to be appointed as a teacher of Classes 1 to 8, and is conducted by the National Council for Teacher Education. When the test was introduced to improve teaching standards in 2011, it had a validity of seven years. Teachers who were already employed were given two years to complete the certification.
In September 2020, the NCTE approved a proposal to extend the validity of the certification to a lifetime with prospective effect. However, for the lakhs of teachers who had already taken the test and were facing expiry of their qualification, it said it would have to take legal opinion.
On Thursday, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank announced that the Centre had approved a proposal to extend the validity to a lifetime, with retrospective effect from 2011. State governments were directed to take necessary action to revalidate or issue fresh TET certificates to those candidates for whom the earlier seven-year validity had lapsed, said the Ministry adding that this would help increase employment opportunities for aspiring teachers.
