The Madras High Court Bench here has reiterated its suggestion to government aided as well as unaided minority schools to take into consideration the interest and welfare of students studying in those institutions and conduct refresher courses as well as interactive sessions for their teachers during annual vacations, since the court had in August held that it was not mandatory for them to clear the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET).

Dismissing a batch of writ appeals preferred by the Director of School Education (DSE) in 2014, Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and J. Nisha Banu pointed out that another Division Bench in the Principal Seat of the High Court in Chennai had held that teachers of minority institutions need not clear the TET, since the Supreme Court on May 6, 2014 ordered that the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act would not be applicable to those institutions.

The Division Bench of Justices Huluvadi G. Ramesh and M.V. Muralidaran had also said: “However, keeping in mind the larger interest in which the Government has issued G.O.s (in 2011 making TET compulsory for teachers of all schools), this court feels that the minority institutions may consider conducting refresher courses and also some interactive sessions to all the teachers during annual vacation in order to ensure and improve the quality of teachers.”

Since the Division Bench itself had made such a suggestion, the Bench led by Mr. Justice Sathyanarayanan said that such refresher courses could be conducted for teachers either during annual vacation or other holidays in the interest of the students pursuing education in the schools. It pointed out that the DSE had preferred the appeals two years before challenging interim orders passed by a single judge of the High Court in favour of teachers appointed in Baren Bruck Higher Secondary School, St. John’s Higher Secondary School, Walker Higher Secondary School, Schaffter Higher Secondary School, C.C.M. Higher Secondary School and Mary Sargent Higher Secondary School in Tirunelveli district.

After the filing of the present appeals, much water had flown with the Supreme Court insulating minority institutions from the purview of the RTE Act and a Division Bench of the High Court in August this year categorically holding that teachers of those institutions need not clear the TET.

Hence, the appeals pending since 2014 were dismissed in view of the decision rendered on the issue by the other Division Bench.