Teachers protest in Pune against Supreme Court decision on TET

One of the issues raised was imposition of TET, which now mandates that all teachers pass this exam to continue their teaching careers. Shivaji Khandekar, coordinator of the Teacher and Non-Teaching Staff Committee, expressed strong dissatisfaction at the test. “For teachers who have served for 20 to 25 years, this requirement is completely unfair,” he said, adding that teachers appointed before 2013 had never been required to take the test and questioned why it was being enforced at this stage of their careers. He also argued that government officials are not asked to retake qualifying exams after years of service and said teachers should not be treated differently.

Another major demand of the protesting teachers and staff was the reinstatement of the old pension scheme. They also demanded immediate recruitment of non-teaching staff, which has been stalled for years. They emphasised that lack of timely recruitment is putting unnecessary pressure on the education system, leaving schools understaffed and overburdened.

Balasaheb Marne, another protester, said teachers were being assigned tasks outside their core responsibilities, leaving little room to focus on actual teaching. He said this affected both teacher performance and student learning and argued that such inefficiencies would persist unless the government addressed staffing shortages.

Khandekar warned that the protest in Pune was only the beginning and that they may plan protests in Nagpur and Mumbai next if the situation remained unchanged.

(Rucha Kulkarni is an intern with The Indian Express)