Chennai: Although the 2026 TRB exam schedule stated that the notification for the General TET exam would be released in May, four months have passed and the notification for the TET exam has still not been issued, leaving B.Ed graduates and those who have completed intermediate teacher training deeply disappointed.
Under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act brought in by the Central government, intermediate teachers and graduate teachers working in schools from Class 1 to Class 8 must compulsorily pass the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET). According to the regulations of the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), the ‘TET’ exam must be conducted twice a year without fail.
As far as Tamil Nadu is concerned, the TET examination is conducted by the Teachers Recruitment Board on behalf of the state government. According to the Teachers Recruitment Board’s annual examination schedule for 2026, the notification for the first TET exam should have been released in May, and the exam should have been conducted in July. Likewise, the notification for the second TET exam should be released in October, and the exam should be held in December. However, even after four months, the notification for the first TET exam, which should have been released in May, has still not been issued.
As a result, B.Ed graduates and those who have completed intermediate teacher training, who have been waiting for the ‘TET’ exam, have been deeply disappointed. With only 3 months left until the end of 2026, they are worried that even the first TET exam has not yet been conducted.
Teachers affected by this said: Following the NCTE regulations, the Central government has been conducting the Central Teacher Eligibility Test, known as CTET, twice a year as planned. However, the TRB does not pay any attention to the NCTE regulations. In November 2025, only one TET exam was conducted. This year, only the special TET exam for teachers already in service was conducted. No one who is not in service can take the special TET exam.
The general TET exam, in which everyone can participate, including those already in teaching positions and those who are not, has not yet been conducted this year. The first TET exam, for which the notification should have been issued in May and the exam completed by July, has still not been held. It is not known how they are going to conduct the second exam.
Nowadays, when applying for a teaching job in a private school, TET qualification is also being asked for. Therefore, the Teachers Recruitment Board should immediately issue the notification for the general ‘TET’ examination and conduct the exam. They say the result of the special TET exam has not been released because of a High Court case. Teachers already in service can also freely take the general TET exam. Even if they miss the chance to pass the special TET exam, they still have the opportunity to try again in the general TET exam and qualify. They said this.
