Chennai:PMK president Dr Anbumani Ramadoss on Wednesday criticised the Tamil Nadu government for failing to publish the results of the special Teacher Eligibility Test even a year after the Supreme Court’s verdict.

Expressing serious concern over the threat to the livelihoods of 3.28 lakh teachers, he, in a statement, demanded immediate steps to publish the results and reduce the pass mark criteria for reserved categories.

Recalling that on September 1 last year, the Supreme Court mandated that all secondary and graduate teachers appointed before the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2010, must pass the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) within three years—by August 31, 2027—or face termination, the PMK leader claimed “though the deadline was subsequently extended to August 31, 2028, and teachers with less than five years left for retirement were granted an exemption, as many as 3,28,701 teachers in Tamil Nadu still need to clear the exam to retain their jobs”.

Pointing out that despite his call for simplified special exams immediately following the apex court verdict, the then DMK government announced the exam only six months later, on February 13 this year, the former union minister said, “while the special TET was eventually conducted on July 4 and 5, the results remain unreleased even after 230 days since the notification and nearly 90 days after the examination.”

Attributing the delay to administrative apathy, the PMK president stated that when a petition seeking a reduction in pass marks came up for hearing in the Madras High Court on July 8, the government sought time to respond, leading to an interim stay on publishing the results.

“Although the High Court directed the government to clarify its stance by July 24, the state filed its counter-affidavit a month late, on August 25”, he said and criticised the government for failing to expedite the case to lift the stay and declare the results in over a month since filing its response.

Highlighting that out of the 36-month window granted by the Supreme Court, 13 months have already elapsed without a single result being published, Anbumani accused the government of “robbing teachers of their rightful opportunities” by failing to conduct exams twice a year as originally mandated. He warned that if the state continues this sluggish pace, teachers will lose out on three to four attempts, resulting in irreparable social injustice.