The chalkboards are empty, classrooms lie abandoned, and instead of guiding students through lessons, teachers across India are marching through streets with placards and anger.

From Agra to Lucknow, from Chennai to Kerala, the nation’s educators have swapped the blackboard for the barricade, up in arms against a single, unsettling question, Will lakhs of senior teachers, in the sunset years of their careers, be driven into poverty, old-age homes, or left to survive on meager pensions—all because they fail one basic eligibility test?

Read in Hindi: काबिलियत साबित करने की परीक्षा से क्यों घबरा रहे हैं शिक्षक!

That question has gripped the education sector ever since the Supreme Court’s September 1 judgment in Anjuman Ishaat-e-Taleem Trust vs State of Maharashtra. The ruling declared the Teacher Eligibility Test mandatory under the Right to Education Act, 2009. Now, all teachers in government, aided, and non-minority schools, including over 5.1 million appointed before 2011, must prove their competence. Those who fail to clear TET within two years will lose their jobs, unless they are within five years of retirement.

For supporters of education reform, this is a long-overdue wake-up call. For teachers’ unions, it is nothing short of a death sentence. “Instead of rising to the challenge, teachers have gone on strike,” critics argue. “Schools are shut, and children—the very ones teachers vowed to safeguard—are the worst sufferers. Is this rebellion a plea for justice, or an escape from accountability?”

The stark truth is that India’s education system is in crisis. The ASER 2023 report revealed that half of Class 5 children cannot even read a Class 2 textbook. This, reformers say, is clear proof that many teachers lack the basic skills to teach. TET is hardly an extraordinary hurdle—it merely tests subject knowledge and teaching ability. Yet, unions see it as an existential threat.

The protests, meanwhile, are spiralling. In Kolkata, 200 TET-qualified candidates stormed the Assembly demanding jobs, while 500 whose appointments were cancelled clung to policemen’s legs, weeping. In Patna, Urdu-Bangla TET aspirants besieged offices over delayed results. In Maharashtra, more than one lakh teachers gathered on September 10, pleading for exemption. Kerala and Tamil Nadu are preparing to challenge the verdict in court, branding it ‘cruel’ towards senior teachers.

But are these teachers not part of the very system that produced such dismal learning outcomes? Public commentator Prof Paras Nath Chaudhary is blunt, “Across the world, in the US, UK, Australia, Finland, Germany, teachers face rigorous exams, training, and renewals. Why should India accept less? The Court has already given a two-year grace period and retirement concessions. Yet unions demand complete exemption.”

The harsh reality is that experience does not equal competence. That is why millions of parents are abandoning government schools for private ones. As retired headmaster Subhash asks, “Who will speak for the poor rural child whose teacher skips class? Or for the qualified young graduate who cleared TET but still sits unemployed?”

But there is also a middle ground. Social activist Mukta Gupta suggests, “Governments can give three to five years, provide free coaching, subsidies, and strictly enforce TET for recruits. Senior teachers can be given training support—but no blanket exemption.”

The choice before India’s teaching community is stark. Either cling to old privileges or embrace the path of quality and excellence. The Supreme Court’s verdict is not a guillotine—it is a bugle call for competence.

India’s children deserve better. The question is, will the teachers rise to the occasion—or let another generation’s future slip away?