3k primary teachers protest in Dehradun, seek exemption from TET requirement

Dehradun: Nearly 3,000 primary school teachers from across Uttarakhand staged a protest in Dehradun on Monday, demanding exemption from the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) requirement for those appointed before the Right to Education (RTE) Act came into force.Under the amended RTE provisions, qualifying TET is mandatory even for teachers appointed before the Act came into force in 2010. The Supreme Court had last year directed teachers across the country to comply with the requirement and gave them time till 2028 to do so. Teachers aged above 55 years have been exempted, provided they do not seek promotions.Teachers argued that they were appointed under recruitment rules that existed before 2010, under which completion of the two-year Basic Training Certificate (BTC) course was mandatory.“We were selected under the rules that existed before 2010. Now, we are being asked to qualify TET as well. How can a law brought later be implemented retrospectively?” said Dharmendra Rawat of Uttarakhand State Primary Teachers Association, affiliated to the All India Primary Teachers Association.According to association member Digambar Singh Negi, the provision could affect around 20,000 teachers teaching Classes I to VIII in Uttarakhand and nearly 25 lakh teachers across the country.

The teachers took out a rally from Parade Ground to the secretariat area and said they had received support from teachers’ organisations in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Delhi. Representatives from these states also joined the protest.The protesters submitted a 12-point memorandum to Dehradun city magistrate for chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. Besides exemption from the TET requirement for pre-2010 appointees, the memorandum included demands related to service conditions, including implementation of the old pension scheme. Administration officials assured the protesters that their demands would be conveyed to the govt.