A.YAMINI Vs. PRINCIPAL SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AS per Section 23 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 [in short RTE Act, 2009], the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has been appointed as the Academic Authority by the Government of India. The said Academic Authority has indicated to all the States that the teachers to be recruited in future should have passed the "Teacher Eligibility Test " [TET] to be conducted by the appropriate Government in accordance with the guidelines framed by the National Council for Teacher Education for the purpose. In pursuance of the said direction of the NCTE and Section 23(1) of the RTE Act, 2009, the Government of Tamil Nadu has issued Government Order in G.O.Ms.181, School Education (C1) Department, dated 15.11.2011 designating the respondent Teacher Recruitment Board as Nodal Agency for conducting the Teacher Eligibility Test for Secondary Grade Teachers and Graduate ASsistants. AS per the NCTE regulations, the Nodal Agency is bound to conduct the Teacher Eligibility Test at least once in a year. But, as and when required, any number of such tests can be conducted by the Nodal Agency in a year.

(2.) IN pursuance of the above Government Order, the Teachers Recruitment Board initiated process by conducting Teacher Eligibility Test on 12.07.2012. The qualifying marks for eligibility in the said examination was fixed at 60% which is inconsonance with the guidelines issued by the NCTE. The results of the said examination held on 12.07.2012 were declared by the Teachers Recruitment Board on 24.08.2012. But, unfortunately, the pass percentage was shockingly low. To be precise, for Paper-I [Secondary Grade Teachers], the percentage of pass was 0.60% and for Paper-II [Graduate Assistants] percentage of pass was 0.18%. Thus, out of 6,76,763 candidates who appeared in the examination, only 2448 candidates secured 60% of marks and got eligibility certificate.

(3.) IN the second affidavit [W.P.No.24631 of 2012], inter alia, the Chairman, Teachers Recruitment Board, has stated as follows:-