Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging urgent amendments to the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) Act, 1993, to protect the service conditions and promotion prospects of a large number of teachers across India, including about four lakh in Tamil Nadu.He has requested that Sections 23 of the RTE Act and 12A of the NCTE Act be modified so that teachers appointed as per the then prevailing rules remain eligible for service and promotion, without any disruption to children’s education.
According to the Chief Minister, altering service conditions and denying promotions based on a qualification imposed long after appointment violates the legitimate expectations and rights of teachers who were duly selected through transparent processes.
He warns that enforcing TET retrospectively for such a large cohort will severely disrupt school administration, make large-scale replacement of teachers practically impossible, and adversely affect rural and remote schools in particular.