Union Education Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has announced that the TET certificate’s validity has been extended to a lifetime. Earlier, the validity of the Teacher Eligibility Test certificate was 7 years. However, the new rules will apply to all state and central Teacher Eligibility Tests with retrospective effect from the year 2011. To obtain a TET certificate, an eligible candidate has to appear and qualify in a state or national level TET exam.
The central education minister Dr RP Nishank has posted on his official Twitter handle earlier today – “Validity period of Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) qualifying certificate has been extended from 7 years to lifetime with retrospective effect from 2011”. The detailed notice about the latest revision has also been posted by the Minister along with the Twitter post.
As per the notice, the Government has taken the decision to extend the validity of the TET certificate in order to increase employment opportunities for candidates who have qualified Teacher Eligibility Test till now. State and Union Territories have been directed to revalidate/issue new TET certificates for those who have already completed 7 years since they qualified in the TET exam.
Teacher Eligibility Tests are conducted by most states and the CBSE to certify qualifiers as eligible to apply for recruitment as a teacher of Class I to VIII. In addition, at the national level, a Teacher Eligibility Test i.e., the CTET exam is also conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education. Candidates who qualify through respective TET exams are issued the corresponding TET certificate. Till now, the validity of the TET exam was only seven years from the date of declaration of result in states and UTs. Now, as per the latest guidelines, all states and UTs conducting TET exams will have to abide by the retrospective effect on all TET certificates issued since 2011.
The notice reads, “The Guidelines dated 11th February 2011 of the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) 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”. Now, as per the latest notice of the Ministry of Education dated June 03, 2021 and released by PIB Delhi, the validity will be lifetime with retrospective effect from TET exams held in or after 2011.
Candidates, whose TET certificates have already expired are advised to check the official website of the respective conducting board/council regarding re-validation/re-issue of TET certificates. Qualifying for the examination, and obtaining a valid TET certificate is necessary for recruitment as an elementary teacher in India.
