Supreme court ruling shifts focus to TET preparation for Maharashtra teachers
While in-service teachers are going to have to clear TET to keep jobs, the deadline is now extended to August 2028.
Dismissing review petitions challenging the TET mandate for in-service teachers, the SC on May 29 provided only a slight relief of an extended deadline. (File Photo) From opposing retrospective implementation of the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) to beginning studies for clearing it, in-service teachers from across Maharashtra have changed their focus, especially after the recent Supreme Court ruling on multiple review petitions challenging its earlier ruling of making it mandatory for in-service teachers.
Already over six lakh candidates have registered for Maharashtra’s TET scheduled to be held in June 2026, for which registration closed last month. This is significantly more than the 4.75 lakh registration the last state TET held in November 2025 saw, when Maharashtra witnessed a record TET turnout following the Supreme Court (SC) mandate making it compulsory for in-service teachers to clear TET, just like new recruitments.
“Considering the developments, it is now better to start preparing for the test than wait in anticipation of any exemption. Waiting in uncertainty would mean missing the extended deadline to clear the TET,” said a senior teacher from Mumbai school, adding that lakhs of teachers were hopeful of some respite after multiple review petitions were filed challenging the retrospective implementation of the TET. “But the ruling has made it clear that there is no option but to clear TET,” said the teacher.
Dismissing review petitions challenging the TET mandate for in-service teachers, the SC on May 29 provided only a slight relief of an extended deadline. While in-service teachers are going to have to clear TET to keep jobs, the deadline is now extended to August 2028.
The large increase in registration for TET’s June 2026 attempt according to officials indicates rising fear among in-service teachers of losing their jobs. “And the recent SC ruling is only going to intensify it further,” said an official from the state’s school education department.
One in-service teacher, requesting anonymity said, “Nobody had opposed TET, but it is unjustified to expect teachers who were appointed before its implementation to clear it to now keep jobs. But the SC’s recent ruling has left no room for any hope of exemption to us, forcing us to study for the TET.” The teacher was appointed before 2011, when the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) implemented TET, and was already well recognised by various awards including by the government for outstanding performance in teaching.
There are many such teachers who are now focused on studying to clear the TET, instead of hoping for a resolution. Data from Maharashtra shows that there are over 4.4lakh in-service teachers in Maharashtra – from government-run as well as private schools combined – who do not have TET qualification. This is a sizable number of teachers – over 90 percent – out of total working teachers which are 4,95,167 as per the data. Of the teachers who do not have TET qualification, over 2.5 lakh teachers are those who were appointed before 2011, the year when National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) introduced TET as qualifying criteria for teacher recruitment. Among them, more than 62,000 are those above the age of 50.
In February, Maharashtra’s school education department had collected the data to submit it to the central government. “With this data, sought from various states, the central government was going to study the impact of retrospective implementation of the TET. However with the latest SC ruling, which has acknowledged the impact of TET mandate for in-service teachers, it is only better for teachers to make efforts toward clearing the test,” said an official from the Department.
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