Maharashtra teachers to shut schools tomorrow to protest TET rule, SIR work

3 min readPuneUpdated: Jul 8, 2026 03:17 PM IST

The protesters' main demand is relaxation of the Teacher Eligibility Test mandate for teachers who joined service before 2013.

(Representational image)

Maharashtra State Primary Teacher’s Committee has announced that government and government-aided schools across the state will remain closed on July 9 as teachers go on mass leave to protest against the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) mandate, promotion and staffing approval policies, and their appointment as booth-level officers (BLOs) for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list.

The Teacher’s Union Coordination Committee, the Maharashtra State Primary Teacher’s Committee, the Maharashtra TET/CTET Qualified Teacher’s Action Committee, the Maharashtra State Private School Teacher’s Association, Shaikshanik Vyaspeeth, the Maharashtra State Secondary and Higher Secondary Headmasters Association, and other like-minded teacher unions support the protest.

Vijay Kombe, president of the committee, told The Indian Express that teachers from four neighbouring districts will protest at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan while other teachers will protest in their districts. “Thousands of teachers are expected to join the protest. However, heavy rain might affect these numbers,” he said.

‘Reduce TET passing marks to 40%’

The committee’s main demand is relaxation of the TET mandate for teachers who joined service before 2013, the year the state introduced the test. In 2025, the Supreme Court made the TET mandatory for all in-service teachers. Protesters demand that passing marks for in-service teachers be reduced to 60 out of 150 marks (40 per cent), or a “TET-equivalent eligibility test” should be conducted for them.

Another important objection is to the assignment of BLO work to teachers. In a letter, the association said, “The Election Commission’s clear directives state that teachers should be appointed as BLOs only if no other government employees are available in the village. Yet, at the local level, only primary teachers are assigned this task. The additional burden of BLO duties for SIR is causing mental and physical exhaustion among teachers.”

The demands also include an immediate halt to the staffing approval (sanchmanyata) policy and the promotion process initiated by Pune’s director of education for the posts of extension officer (education), cluster head (kendra pramukh), and headmaster.

In response to the protest call, Mahesh Palkar, Director of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, wrote to divisional deputy directors and zilla parishad education officers that no school should remain shut on Thursday. If any school is shut, a day’s wage from the salaries of the principal, teachers, and non-teaching staff will be cut, Palkar added.