Bengal primary school teachers condemn WB govt move to conduct TET, call it 'anti-education'

The Bengal Primary Teachers Association (BPTA) has condemned the state government special secretary's decision to direct the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) and the Primary Education Board to conduct the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) for teachers.

Calling the West Bengal government’s decision to conduct TET exam a “disrespectful step”, the Bengal teachers group stated that the Supreme Court, in its landmark judgement on September 1, 2025, made TET compulsory for working teachers, and those educators with over 5 years of service were directed to pass the test within two years.

Later, a petition was filed and based on it, the apex court, on May 29 permitted an additional one year extension to teachers until August 31, 2028, it said.

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'Tamil Nadu has done it, why not West Bengal govt?'

“It is to be noted that on 10th August, in reply to a question by the state's MP Isha Ali Khan in the Rajya Sabha, the Minister of State for Education informed in writing that education is in the concurrent list, and in response to that, on 25th August, the Tamil Nadu government passed a resolution in the Assembly and appealed to the Central Government regarding solving the TET issue,” the teachers association said in an official statement.

It further said that several news reports suggests that the Kashmir government is also planning the similar step as the Tamil Nadu government.

Before the state assembly elections on February 14, the former union education minister promised to resolve the TET issue but after the election, no steps were taken and now the initiative to conduct TET is “undoubtedly anti-education,” it added.

In addition, jobs of around 32,000 teachers of the state are pending before the top court in the recruitment corruption case, and most schools across the country are running with 1/2 teachers, it said.

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'Over 1 lakh schools in West Bengal have single teacher'

As per the statistics, 13 schools are being closed every day due to shortage of teachers, and at present, there are 1,00,843 single-teacher schools in the country.

Ananda Handa, the General Secretary of the association, alleged that teachers appointed 15-20 years before the introduction of TET had received appointment letters as per the rules fixed at that time.

Forcing them to appear for the exam again is nothing but a policy of large-scale retrenchment, which is nothing other than implementing the policy of closing down schools under the “National Education Policy 2020”, it said.

Therefore, the association has urged the state government to solve the TET problem at “immediate” basis.