35,726 teachers recruited by West Bengal School Service Commission

Nearly. a month after the Supreme Court judgment that the earlier recruitment of school teachers in West Bengal "vitiated and tainted," the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) has issued a fresh notification to recruit 35,726 teachers in state-aided schools.

Issued late Thursday night on the commission's official website, the notice outlines the hiring of 23,312 teachers for class 9 and class 10, and 12,514 teachers for classes 11 and 12 in secondary and higher secondary schools.

As per the instructions, the candidates must be between the ages of 21 and 40 years. Relaxations in the maximum age will be granted—5 years for SC/ST candidates, 3 years for OBC candidates, and 8 years for physically handicapped candidates. Candidates would also be supplied with carbon copies of their OMR sheets, which they would retain with them for a period of three years.

The online application portal will remain open from 5 pm on June 16 to 5 pm on June 17.

The drive recruitment comes in the wake of a Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, upholding an April 2024 Calcutta High Court order that had cancelled previous appointments of school staff and teachers.

The court also directed that fresh recruitment advertisement be completed by May 31 and the whole process to be completed by December 31.

In a relief to the schools and students, the court had earlier allowed teachers, who were cleared by the CBI of any alleged misconduct, to continue in service till December-end to avoid further disruption of the academic calendar.

With the release of the notification, the state government and WBSSC will be required to submit a compliance affidavit before the Supreme Court saying the recruitment process has been initiated as ordered.

This is a milestone in the long-pending school recruitment scandal in West Bengal and the way for one of the largest recruitment exercises in the education system of the state