Punjab stays station selection process for promoted teachers

Punjab higher and school education secretary Anandita Mittra said that there are some legal issues that need to be addressed first.

Punjab Education Department on Thursday stayed the station selection process for promoted teachers.

This follows a ruling by the Supreme Court in September, which made it mandatory for all in-service teachers of Classes 1 to 8 in non-minority schools to clear the TET within two years. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

In a letter dated January 8, 2026, the director of school education (secondary) Punjab stated that the station selection process currently underway following promotion orders issued on November 12, 2025, December 23-24, 2025 and January 4-5, 2026 is hereby stayed until further notice.

Punjab higher and school education secretary Anandita Mittra said that there are some legal issues that need to be addressed first. “There are certain judicial judgments that we must consider carefully. That’s why we are referring the matter to the office of the advocate general,” she said.

Democratic Teachers Front (DTF) state president Vikramdev Singh said that they met with the director of Primary Education on Wednesday.

Singh alleged that double standards were being adopted by the government. He noted that while (elementary teacher training) ETT teachers’ names were included in the station allocation list the names of head teachers and centre head teachers were not even considered. He said that imposing the TET requirement which was introduced in 2011 under the Right to Education (RTE) Act—on teachers recruited before that year is unjustified. The leaders said that the education department had never imposed TET on teachers recruited in 2010 or earlier.

This follows a ruling by the Supreme Court in September, which made it mandatory for all in-service teachers of Classes 1 to 8 in non-minority schools to clear the TET within two years. The apex court held that this applies even to those appointed before the 2011 mandate. Under the order, only teachers with less than five years until retirement are exempt from taking the test, though they remain ineligible for further promotions without it.