The Supreme Court’s decision on September 1st, according to AIFETO National Secretary V. Annamalai and the Senior Leader of the Thamizhaga Aasiriyar Koottani in a statement, has put teachers in a very uncomfortable position.
The Supreme Court has been very clear that the TET (Teacher Eligibility Test) certificate is compulsory for service confirmation as well as for promotion. “How are we going to save the teachers who are already working?” is the question that keeps coming to our minds,” says what we are feeling deep inside.
Rights Voices of Other States Heard in Parliament
The Parliamentary Winter Session, which started on December 1st, is still going on till the 19th. The MP from different states raised their voice for rights in the Parliament for the resolution of the TET problem.
In the Lok Sabha Congress MP Imran Masood (Saharanpur Lok Sabha Constituency, Uttar Pradesh State) demanded that changes should be made in the Free and Compulsory Education Act. Speaker Om Birla, reacting to this, emotionally said that “Parliament should consider this and relieve teachers from TET.”
On December 4, 2025, Dharmendra Yadav (Azamgarh Constituency MP, Uttar Pradesh State), the brother of Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, addressed the Lok Sabha. At this point, he called upon the Central Government to introduce the required legal amendment to the RTE Act 2009 & RTE Amendment Act 2017 to protect 200,000 teachers appointed before 2011 in Uttar Pradesh and 2.5 million teachers all over the country from TET. Besides that, he spoke in such a way that the Central Government got attracted to him and he stressed out that the senior teachers’ livelihood and the educational welfare of students of classes 1-8 should be safeguarded.
P. Santhosh Kumar (CPI Party member in the Rajya Sabha) conveyed that college teachers along with affiliated unions under AIFUCTO are going to have a massive Dharna at Jantar Mantar, Delhi on December 9th. While addressing, he was highly emotional about the unfilled posts in universities, the requirement for solving the anomalies faced by government-aided college teachers, and the need for the protection of teachers working in government and government-aided schools from the Supreme Court ruling which makes TET compulsory. Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice President C.P. Radhakrishnan was attentively listening to the speech.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Keeps Quiet
There were 16 DMK Members of Parliament altogether, who have talked about the rights of the people in the Lok Sabha for the last three days, but none of them have raised their voice concerning the TET issue, as per the article “The Voice of Rights of Kazhagam Members in Parliament” published in Murasoli, the daily of the ruling party. It is an involuntary reaction to grief on reading this. We can talk today or tomorrow, but isn’t it true that no one from our state spoke first and this will be going down in history?
Chief Minister M.K. Stalin in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi had suggested that a legal amendment be made in Parliament to protect teachers from TET. Moreover, he invited a meeting of DMK MPs and informed them that the agenda they are planning to be discussed in the Parliament should be consist of the protection of teachers’ service and promotion who are appointed before 2010. We thought, feeling pride, of this. But when we think that the urgency feeling of the Uttar Pradesh Samajwadi Party and the Communist Party of India was there but the DMK MPs were missing, we feel a pressure.
The Only Light is a Legal Amendment
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has been making this promise in the different places that he visits that Parliament would enact a law to protect teachers from the Supreme Court verdict. Not long ago, we got the official information that Central Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also assured that they would protect the teachers who are currently working from the Supreme Court verdict where TET is mandatory.
We (AIFETO) had our first anti-TET protest at Jantar Mantar, Delhi, on November 14th. AIPTF held one on November 24th. AIFUCTO is organising one on December 9th. Together with the STFI student organisations, we are organising, protesting when it is necessary, and talking to parliamentary group leaders state-wise who we think will raise their voices for an amendment to the RTE Act if we ask them. Only by means of a legal amendment in Parliament can the teachers be safeguarded.
It is out of the question to anticipate that a good resolution will be the outcome of the Review Petition against the two-judge bench verdict. The very judges who pronounced the judgment will not be willing to alter it unless there is a legal amendment. We can’t say “Nāṭṭāmai, change the verdict” like a Tamil movie line. A vidiyal has to be created for us before the Winter Session is over. We are working with the hope that the Central Government will bring an amendment to the RTE Act for the welfare of millions of teachers.
Contact AIFETO Mr. Annamalai @ 94442 12060 / 9962222314. annamalaiaifeto@gmail.com
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