Shimla, July 9
The condition of qualifying the Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) is mandatory for appointment as teacher, both in government and private schools across the country, irrespective of the procedure adopted for admission to the JBT course or any other training course qualified by a candidate.
Union Minister of Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal has, in a letter to Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, informed that the condition of passing the TET was introduced in August 2010 under the Right to Education Act to serve various objectives. These included bringing national standards and a benchmark for “teacher quality” in the recruitment process.
Dhumal had taken up the matter with the Union Minister for granting exemption from the TET in respect of JBT trainees who were selected for the training prior to the implementation of the Right of Education Act.
Sibal said besides Himachal, in some other states also admission to a two-year DEd programme (equivalent to the JBT programme in Himachal) was made on the basis of merit and a selection test.
However, even where such admission procedure was followed and students passed the two-year programme, the requirement of passing the TET was still applicable for all appointments of teachers. This condition applied to all schools throughout the country, both government and private schools.
