Over 25,000 in-service teachers in Meghalaya must pass the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) to comply with a Supreme Court order in September 2025, state education minister Lahkmen Rymbui said on Monday as the government began accepting applications from teachers for the test. A probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) later led to the termination of 246 teachers in the initial phases (Facebook/MeghalayaAssemblyChannel)
Rymbui, however, underlined that the test was not for teachers terminated in connection with irregularities in the recruitment of lower primary teachers in 2008-9 when white correction fluid was used to favour selected candidates.
A probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) later led to the termination of 246 teachers in the initial phases. Later, over 260 more teachers were also sacked.
“There are two separate issues… those tainted teachers have to be terminated, and that stands as of now,” Rymbui told reporters after an official meeting, underlining that action flows directly from court findings on their appointments.
In this case, the Meghalaya High Court last year discharged the state’s former education minister and others for lack of evidence, though its findings about irregularities in teacher recruitment stayed.
Rymbui stressed that the quashing of criminal proceedings “has no bearing” on the fate of those whose appointments were invalidated, drawing a distinction between culpability and eligibility.
In its verdict on September 1 last year, the Supreme Court laid down a two-year deadline for all state governments to ensure that teachers of classes 1 to 8 across the country clear the TET within two years, or face termination.
Officials say the move is aimed at improving teaching quality and ensuring uniform benchmarks across schools, though concerns persist over whether all teachers will be able to clear the exam ahead of the deadline.