HC asks minority schools to conduct refresher courses for teachers
The Madras High Court Bench here has reiterated its suggestion togovernment aided as well as unaided minority schools to take intoconsideration the interest and welfare of students studying in thoseinstitutions and conduct refresher courses as well as interactive sessionsfor their teachers during annual vacations, since the court had in Augustheld that it was not mandatory for them to clear the Teachers EligibilityTest (TET).
Dismissing a batch of writ appeals preferred by the Director of SchoolEducation (DSE) in 2014, Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and J. Nisha Banupointed out that another Division Bench in the Principal Seatof the HighCourt in Chennai had held that teachers of minority institutions need notclear the TET, since the Supreme Court on May 6, 2014 ordered that theRight of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act would not beapplicable to those institutions.
The Division Bench of Justices Huluvadi G. Ramesh and M.V. Muralidaran hadalso said: “However, keeping in mind the larger interest in which theGovernment has issued G.O.s (in 2011 making TET compulsory for teachers ofall schools), this court feels that the minority institutions may considerconducting refresher courses and also some interactive sessions to all theteachers during annual vacation in order to ensure and improve the qualityof teachers.”Since the Division Bench itself had made such a suggestion,the Bench ledby Mr. Justice Sathyanarayanan said that such refresher courses could beconducted for teachers either during annual vacation or other holidays inthe interest of the students pursuing education in the schools.
It pointedout that the DSE had preferred the appeals two years beforechallenginginterim orders passed by a single judge of the High Court in favour ofteachers appointed in Baren Bruck Higher Secondary School, St. John’sHigher Secondary School, Walker Higher Secondary School, Schaffter Higher Secondary School, C.C.M. Higher Secondary School and Mary Sargent HigherSecondary School in Tirunelveli district.After the filing of the present appeals, much water had flown with theSupreme Court insulating minority institutions from the purview of the RTEAct and a Division Bench of the High Court in August this yearcategorically holding that teachers of those institutions need not clearthe TET.Hence, the appeals pending since 2014 were dismissed in view of thedecision rendered on the issue by the other Division bebch
