Teaching and Academia

Teaching in India generally has two separate gates, and candidates sometimes prepare for the second without clearing the first.

• For school teaching at the elementary level, a Teacher Eligibility Test is a prerequisite. CTET covers central schools; each State conducts its own TET for State schools.
• Clearing a TET makes you eligible to apply. It is not itself an appointment — recruitment is a separate process conducted by the school system.
• For college and university teaching, UGC NET establishes eligibility for Assistant Professor and, for qualifying candidates, a Junior Research Fellowship. Several States conduct their own SET or SLET for State universities.
• Recruitment then happens through the individual institution, KVS, NVS, a State education department or a State public service commission.

The minimum qualifications for school teachers are governed by NCTE norms and for college and university teachers by UGC regulations. Both have been amended over time, including the treatment of doctoral degrees as an alternative route for Assistant Professor eligibility.

Because these have changed more than once, the reliable approach is to read the current NCTE or UGC regulation and the specific recruitment notification, rather than relying on what applied when you began studying.

• Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan and Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, for central school systems.
• State education departments and State public service commissions, for government schools and colleges.
• Individual central and State universities, which advertise faculty posts directly on their own websites.
• Army Public Schools, Railway schools and other departmental school systems, which recruit separately.