HYDERABAD: The Telangana government permitted two special state Teacher Eligibility Tests (TETs) exclusively for in-service teachers, following representations from teachers’ unions over retirement risks faced by educators who fail to qualify the examination.
In an order issued by the school education department on Wednesday, the government allowed the conduct of two special TETs in addition to the regular two TETs held annually. The permission was granted after examining proposals submitted by the director of school education and representations made by multiple teachers’ organisations.
The issue gained urgency after a Supreme Court ruling dated September 1, 2025 made it mandatory for in-service teachers handling classes 1 to 8 and having more than five years of service left before retirement to qualify the TET within two years. Teachers’ unions said failure to clear the examination could result in compulsory retirement with only terminal benefits.
In a representation submitted earlier to the government, the Telangana state united teachers’ federation (TSUTF) said many long-serving teachers were struggling to meet the qualifying criteria despite years of service in rural and remote schools.
According to the federation, 1,00,270 candidates qualified in the January 2026 TET with an overall pass percentage of 51.37%. Among in-service teachers, 37,893 qualified, recording a pass percentage of 57.76%. However, unions said a substantial number of teachers, particularly from the general category, could not secure the required qualifying marks.
Teachers’ organisations argued that many educators appointed before the introduction of TET were originally recruited through district selection committee examinations without TET weightage and are now facing difficulties because of age, examination patterns and subject-related syllabus concerns.
The TSUTF had sought relaxation measures including lower qualifying marks, additional weightage based on years of service and separate subject-wise TETs for in-service teachers.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
