More than 21 thousand candidates took the State Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) held on Saturday in Vellore and Tiruvannamalai districts.

In Vellore, 12,587 including 238 differently abled candidates wrote the first paper across 37 centres.

About 21,720 candidates including 393 differently abled aspirants are expected to write the second paper across 62 centres on Sunday.

Tiruvannamalai centres

Meanwhile, 8,419 candidates wrote their exams across 18 centres in Tiruvannamalai on Saturday.

More than 900 and 700 staff members were involved in conducting these examinations in Vellore and Tiruvannamalai respectively.

The Right of Children for Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 makes it mandatory for teachers of classes I to VIII to clear the TET conducted by the State Government.

Previous exams

Tamil Nadu conducted the test in 2013 and 2017.

It was not conducted last year due to pending court cases.

The district administrations have made elaborate security arrangements for the exams on Saturday and Sunday.