Chennai: Nearly three months after taking the special Teachers’ Eligibility Test, and two days after Madras High Court lifted an interim stay on the declaration of results, lakhs of in-service teachers in Tamil Nadu are still awaiting their results, with time running out to meet a Supreme Court deadline.Around 2.26 lakh in-service teachers took the test conducted by the Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) in July this year in the wake of a Sept 2025 Supreme Court order mandating teachers with more than five years of service to clear the test by Aug 31, 2028. Teachers are required to clear the test (papers 1 and 2) to be considered eligible to teach Classes 1-8.While the school education department announced that it would conduct special TETs thrice a year to give several attempts to around 3.2 lakh teachers yet to clear the test, only one such test has happened so far. “SC directive came in Sept last year; it took the govt until July to hold the first exam. Three months have passed without results. Teachers’ jobs are at stake. We submitted a representation to the secretary and other officials, but there is no clarity on when the results will be out. The govt’s top priority now must be to release the results and hold the next exam,” said TN Elementary Grade Teachers’ Association state general secretary R Doss.An official from the TRB said that efforts were underway to get the results soon. Initially, the Madras high court had ordered an interim stay in July over petitions from teachers’ associations to reduce the qualifying marks and add marks based on service. “Now that the stay has been lifted, the results are being processed. There will be another special TET in Dec this year. The notification for the exam will be released along with the results,” the official said.Teachers, however, said high court stay should not have led to further delay. “The high court only ordered a stay in July to publish the results, not to keep them ready. The govt should have been ready with the results at least by Aug and could have released it when the court lifted the stay,” said S Natramizhan from Secondary Grade Teachers’ Association.
