The Directorate of Primary Education has issued a letter directing education officials to submit verified data from all government and aided schools. In the letter, Director of Primary Education Sharad Gosavi, referring to the Supreme Court ruling that made TET mandatory, stated that information has been sought in three separate formats through education officials at various levels.

These formats include categorization of teachers by age along with their TET status in relation to the year of their appointment, specifically distinguishing between those appointed before and after 2011, the year the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) introduced TET. Data is collected separately for teachers serving classes 1 to 5 and classes 6 to 8 under the direction of primary education.

The third format seeks general information on the status of TET implementation in the state, including the total number of teachers, those appointed before and after 2011, teachers who have passed the TET since its introduction, and those who are exempt from the requirement.

According to the Supreme Court ruling, the TET is mandatory not only for new appointments but also for in-service teachers who have more than five years of service remaining. The ruling establishes that these teachers must pass the TET within two years or face mandatory retirement. This has raised concerns about potential job losses and their impact on staffing levels at government-run and subsidized schools, which are already facing a shortage of teachers.

Although TET was introduced nationally in 2011, its implementation in Maharashtra did not begin until 2013. Teachers appointed before this continue to serve without qualification. Many of these teachers argue that their appointments were made under the recruitment rules in force at the time and that it would be unfair to penalize them now for not having a TET qualification.

Teachers’ organizations have warned that the ruling could affect more than one lakh in-service teachers across Maharashtra. However, school education department sources said the latest age-wise data collection is expected to provide a more accurate projection of the impact rather than relying on estimates. According to the Supreme Court ruling, teachers who have less than five years of service remaining can continue in their positions but will not be eligible for promotion.

A senior official said, “This data will be presented to the central government and the NCTE, whom the state government has already approached for clarity on the retrospective implementation of the TET requirement for appointment of teachers. Since many in-service teachers passed the TET in the recently conducted attempt, the impact may not be as severe as initially anticipated.”