Teachers Eligibility Test: TET qualifying certificate valid for lifetime, says govt

New Delhi: The government has decided to extend the validity period of the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) qualifying certificate from 7 years to lifetime with retrospective effect from 2011, Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ announced today.

“This will be a positive step in increasing the employment opportunities for candidates aspiring to make a career in the teaching field,” Mr Pokhriyal said. He further said that the respective state government and union territories will take necessary action to revalidate or issue fresh TET certificates to those candidates whose period of 7 years has already elapsed, he added.

This big change has been made to the guidelines dated February 11, 2011 of the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) which laid down that TET would be conducted by the state governments and the validity of the TET Certificate was 7 years from the date of passing TET.

Teachers Eligibility Test is one of the essential qualifications for a person to be eligible for appointment as a teacher in schools. Earlier, though the validity of the TET pass certificate was for 7 years, there was no restriction on the number of attempts a person can take for acquiring a certificate.

A person who has qualified the exam was also allowed to appear again for improving score. While states conduct their own TET, the Central TET or the CTET is conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).