In-service teachers clear Maharashtra TET in large numbers as interim results show sharp rise in pass percentage.(Representational image/File)
Maharashtra State Exam Council has declared the interim results of Teachers Eligibility Test. This was the first exam after the Supreme Court’s TET mandate for in-service teachers, which had resulted in record-high registration for the exam. Despite anxiety over how in-service teachers, many of whom are older adults, would perform in an exam infamous for always recording an overall pass percentage of less than five percent, many in-service teachers have cleared the TET in their first attempt.
One of them is Somnath Walke, a Zilla Parishad (ZP) school teacher from Beed district who was among winners of the 2022 national teacher’s award. Walke has over 20 years of service as a teacher after being appointed way before TET was implemented in Maharashtra. “Despite having proved my merit, I was about to be brought under the scanner for not having TET. The 2025 exam was the first session after the SC ruling and I decided to appear for it. I didn’t even know the syllabus completely. But I was confident of my preparation after having served as school-teacher for so long,” said Walke, further adding that all those teachers who have worked diligently on the job should not fear the exam.
Walke, however, emphasised that the TET should focus more on application-oriented and pedagogy-related questions, instead of providing content for rote-learning of facts. “With the years of experience at hand, teachers are able to easily solve questions which are application-oriented,” he said.
Another teacher, Anand Anewad from a ZP School in Palghar, who too cleared the exam in the first attempt, had a similar experience to share. “It was a very last-minute decision for me to register for TET. As a result, I did not have time to prepare. So, I decided to consider it to be just an attempt to understand the structure of the exam. And I cleared it,” said Anewad, who has won a state-level award for effective use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in teaching learning. Anewad insisted that TET’s structure should focus more on pedagogy related questions. “With more in-service teachers now appearing for the exam due to SC mandate, this is important for effective evaluation,” he said.
Although candidates are able to access their individual results online, the council has officially not declared overall result statistics. However, as per the sources, overall pass percentage of the result has crossed eight percent, compared to less than five percent in any of the past seven TET sessions conducted over ten years.
Anuradha Oak, Commissioner of Maharashtra State Exam Council, which conducts the TET, said, “As this is an interim result, candidates will have time to raise objections if any. Official figures will be declared with the final result. However, the overall pass percentage has definitely increased.”
The TET 2025 was held in November and candidate registration crossed 4.7 lakh, a record high since TET started in Maharashtra in 2013. This surge in number was attributed to the Supreme Court’s TET mandate for in-service teachers, from September 2025.
As per the SC ruling, TET is made mandatory not only for new appointments but also for in-service teachers who have more than five years of service remaining. With regards to the latter, the SC ruling states that they will have to clear the TET within the next two years or accept compulsory retirement. Whereas for those who have less than five years of service, they can continue on the job but will not be eligible for any promotion. This has caused considerable anxiety among in-service teachers over potential job-loss. As a result, TET 2025 witnessed record high registration.
Now as the overall pass percentage has increased, according to experts this is because a huge number of candidates are in-service teachers who have managed to excel at the exam with their years of experience.
Suresh Sawale, Joint Secretary of the Spardha Pariksha Samanvay Samiti, an organisation of various competitive exam aspirants, said, “The pass percentage is likely to increase further once Council officially declares the figures as many candidates under reserved category have been declared failed despite scoring 82 marks, which is their qualifying score.”
Curated by James Chen
