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Following the recent judgment of the Supreme Court on the mandatory nature of Teacher Eligibility Test, the Government of Kerala has issued new guidelines on Kerala Teacher Eligibility Test (K-TET) for appointments and promotions in government and aided schools.
This decision comes in the backdrop of the Supreme Court judgment dated August 7, 2023 and subsequent judgment delivered on September 1, 2025 in Writ Petition No. 1385/2025 and related civil appeals.
The government said it sought clarification from the Director of General Education and examined the issue in detail before releasing the revised criteria.
As per the new guidelines, candidates who have qualified K-TET Category I or Category II will continue to be eligible for appointment as lower primary (LP) and upper primary (UP) teachers.
However, those who have qualified K-TET Category III will only be considered for High School Teacher posts.
The government has also clarified that high school language teachers must have both K-TET Category III and Category IV qualifications.
In a major change, the relaxation before K-TET has been withdrawn for candidates having higher qualifications like SET, NET, MPhil, PhD or M.Ed. The government said that these candidates will now have to clear the respective K-TET category also.
For promotion, only serving high school teachers possessing K-TET Category III qualification will be considered for promotion as Headmaster and transfer appointments to Higher Secondary School Teacher (HSST) and HSST (Junior) posts.
The existing relaxation for Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) candidates will continue. Those who have qualified CTET preliminary stage will be eligible for LP teacher appointments, while candidates with CTET preliminary stage qualification can be considered for UP teacher posts.
The government has said that the existing procedures for promotion to the post of Principal of Higher Secondary School will remain the same.
For sub-transfer promotion to various teaching posts, only candidates possessing relevant K-TET qualification of the respective category will be considered.
Earlier, General Education Minister V Sivankutty had said the state would file a review petition or approach the Supreme Court seeking clarity on the decision, which has made TET mandatory for all school teachers.
He had told that the Supreme Court had examined the laws and rules made by the Central Government. Since education falls under the concurrent list of the Constitution, he had said the Center should consider bringing in new laws to address the concerns raised by the judgment.
The state government clarified that the newly issued guidelines will remain in force for now, but will be subject to the final decision of the review petition pending before the Supreme Court.
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