3 min readFeb 15, 2026 02:28 PM IST
First published on: Feb 15, 2026 at 02:28 PM IST
More than 1.1 lakh teachers aged over 50 in Maharashtra’s government and private schools will have to clear the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) by September 2027 to retain their jobs, shows data accessed by The Indian Express.
State data collated by the Maharashtra school education department for submission to the Centre shows that the Supreme Court’s September 2025 ruling, which makes TET mandatory even for many in-service teachers, affects nearly 90% of the state’s teaching workforce. In absence of any clear order in this regard from the state’s school education department; uncertainty over potential job-losses looms over the heads of lakhs of teachers.
In all, over 4.4 lakh of Maharashtra’s 4,95,437 teachers will now have to clear the TET. Of these, nearly 1.1 lakh are above 50 years of age, with about 15 years left until retirement.
Although the state’s concerns are mainly about government-run schools, where teacher employment is under its direct control, the data includes details of all in-service teachers across Maharashtra, including those working in self-financed schools. According to government officials, less than half of the total — around 1.5 lakh teachers — are from government-run schools who do not have TET qualification.
As per the Supreme Court’s ruling last year, TET is mandatory not only for new appointments but also for in-service teachers who have more than five years of service remaining. Teachers who fail to qualify within two years of the order face compulsory retirement, raising concerns about potential job losses and staffing gaps in schools already facing shortages.
With similar concerns being flagged by multiple states, the Centre sought age-wise and appointment-year data from states to assess the scale of the retrospective mandate.
The Maharashtra data shows that over 2.5 lakh teachers currently in service were appointed before 2011, the year when the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) introduced TET as a qualifying criterion for recruitment.
Primary schools have the highest share of non-qualified teachers. In Classes 1 to 5, Maharashtra has 3,06,336 teachers, but only 22,975 have cleared TET. In other words, nearly 92% do not have the qualification.
In Classes 6 to 8, out of 1,89,101 teachers, only 26,490 are TET qualified, leaving around 86% without it.
Since the Supreme Court ruling, anxiety among in-service teachers has grown, reflected in record registrations for TET 2025.
Over 4.7 lakh candidates registered for the exam. Results declared on February 3 showed an overall pass percentage of 11.28%, a significant jump from earlier years, when the pass rate had never crossed 5% since TET began in 2013.
To give teachers more chances before the September 2027 deadline, the state has announced that the Maharashtra State Exam Council will now conduct two TET exams every year, instead of one.
Box of age-wise breakup
With similar concerns being flagged by multiple states, the Centre sought age-wise and appointment-year data from states to assess the scale of the retrospective mandate. (File Photo/Canva) 
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