CHENNAI: Less than 50% of in-service teachers who took the special Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) (papers 1 and 2) in Tamil Nadu have cleared the exam — with 1.08 lakh out of 2.17 lakh teachers clearing the test.Sources in the Teachers Recruitment Board said 47,594 out of 58,902 candidates who appeared for TET paper 1 and 60,732 out of 1,58,617 who appeared for TET paper 2 have cleared the exams. While 80% of those who took paper 1 cleared the test, less than 40% passed in paper 2. Qualifying paper 1 makes a teacher eligible to teach up to Class V and paper 2 up to Class VIII.The special TET paper 1 and 2 were held for in-service teachers in Jul this year, following the Supreme Court’s mandate to teachers with more than five years of experience to clear the exam by Aug 2028 to keep their jobs. Subsequently, the school education department announced that it would conduct special TETs thrice a year to provide multiple attempts to teachers who were yet to clear the test.Meanwhile, educationists and teacher-activists have urged the govt to publicly declare the results and announce the notification for the next exam. “Why has the govt not released the results to the public yet, even after hours have passed since they were uploaded on the site? Further, only one special TET was conducted this year while the govt promised three. The govt needs to clarify when the other two special TETs will be held and how many teachers are yet to clear the test,” said J Robert, president, state general secretary, TN Secondary Grade Seniority Teachers Association.Candidates who have qualified in the examination can download their eligibility certificates through the TRB website (http://www.trb.tn.gov.in) within five days.
