Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Defies Supreme Court's Teacher Eligibility Test Mandate

Chief Minister's Instruction on Teacher Eligibility Test

On Tuesday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directed the Basic Education Department to move a review petition before the Supreme Court's order making the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) compulsory for existing teachers. He stressed that the state teachers are trained and experienced and have been regularly trained by the government, and therefore it was not right to ignore their experience and years of service.

The Chief Minister's office posted on social media that Yogi Adityanath has ordered the department to appeal the order of the Supreme Court that the TET requirement should be applied to existing teachers. He reaffirmed that the teachers of the state are experienced professionals who had been trained from time to time by the government, and their qualifications and tenure should not be overlooked.

Over the last five days, two teachers in Uttar Pradesh, aged between their forties and fifties, ended their lives under tragic circumstances. Sources indicate they were under pressure to pass the TET and that they could not handle it. Their kin state that the anxiety of preparing for the TET was the reason behind their misery.

On September 1, 2025, a bench led by Justice Dipankar Dutta and Justice Augustine George Masih held that all government school teachers with over five years' experience have to clear the TET, or else they have to resign or be compulsorily retired. The ruling was given in the context of teacher appointment cases heard in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra but has countrywide implications and will affect almost a million teachers, with some 200,000 in Uttar Pradesh alone.