An academic authority named by the Centre, and five years to catch up: the national rule on teacher qualifications

Background

Kerala's withdrawal on 1 November of the circular against aided-school teachers without K-TET turns on a national rule about who may teach. Section 23 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 makes a person eligible for appointment as a teacher if he holds the minimum qualifications that an academic authority, notified for the purpose by the Centre, has fixed. The Central Government, and not the State, can relax those minimum qualifications by notification where a State has too few teacher-training institutions or too few qualified teachers. Such a relaxation cannot run for more than five years. A teacher already in service without the minimum qualifications when the Act began had to acquire them within five years. An amendment of 2017 gave teachers in position on 31 March 2015 four more years from the start of that amending Act. The same section governs the salary, allowances and service conditions of teachers.