Consider the following statements:
- 1.As per the Right to Education (RTE) Act, to be eligible for appointment as a teacher in a State, a person would be required to possess the minimum qualification laid down by the concerned State Council of Teacher Education.
- 2.As per the RTE Act, for teaching primary classes, a candidate is required to pass a Teacher Eligibility Test conducted in accordance with the National Council of Teacher Education guidelines.
- 3.In India, more than 90% of teacher education institutions are directly under the State Governments.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (b) 2 only
Under Section 23 of the RTE Act, teacher qualifications are set by an academic authority notified by the Central Government, and that authority is the national body NCTE, not any State council. NCTE's 2010 notification made passing a Teacher Eligibility Test, held as per NCTE guidelines, part of the minimum qualification. Most teacher education institutions are privately run, not State-run.
- ✗ 1. The Centre notified the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) as the academic authority under Section 23; there is no State Council that fixes these minimum qualifications.
- ✓ 2. NCTE's notification of 23 August 2010 requires a teacher for Classes I–VIII to pass the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), conducted by the appropriate government in line with NCTE's guidelines.
- ✗ 3. NCTE recognises government, government-aided and self-financing institutions, and the self-financing (private) ones form the great majority; the Justice Verma Commission (2012) put the private share above 90%.
Remember · RTE Act s.23: NCTE (statutory body under the NCTE Act, 1993) is the academic authority for teacher qualifications; TET is mandatory for Classes I–VIII teachers.
Sources
- RTE Act: Section-wise rationale, Ministry of Human Resource Development (archived copy) ↗ “Section 23 provides for qualifications and terms and conditions of service of school teachers. The Central Government has notified NCTE as the academic authority for prescribing teacher qualifications. NCTE has laid down the requisite teacher qualifications as per its notification dated 23rd August 2010.”
- Teacher Education: Overview, Ministry of Human Resource Development (archived copy, September 2018) ↗ “It also grants recognition to institutions (government, government-aided and self-financing) interested in undertaking such courses and has in-built mechanism to regulate and monitor their standards and quality.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·