Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)

West Bengal’s multi-crore teacher recruitment scam which has marred the entire third term in office (which began in 2021) of chief minister Mamata Banerjee has ballooned into a major General Election 2024 issue.

In General Election 2019, the resurgent BJP won an unprecedented 18 of West Bengal’s 42 seats in the Lok Sabha, Delhi. This time around, the BJP is confident of increasing its tally because of the prolonged stink created by the stymied teacher recruitment process in the state where teachers’ jobs — especially in government schools — are highly prized.

The sheer scale of the teacher recruitment scam under Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) government has angered the electorate and judiciary as well. On April 21, the Calcutta high court nullified the appointment of 25,753 teachers recruited following a TET (teacher eligibility test) conducted by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) in 2016. TET 2016 was written by 2.3 million aspiring school teachers, of whom 25,753 were selected and appointed in 15,302 government and aided secondary and higher secondary schools. However, writ petitions were filed in Calcutta high court in which petitioners claimed that many candidates who received low grades were surreptitiously placed high on the merit list and some who submitted blank papers, were appointed.

Although the Supreme Court granted an interim stay of the Calcutta high court’s sweeping judgement, it has provided temporary respite to the teachers appointed under TET 2016. The sword hanging over their heads has not been removed. While granting the interim stay on May 7, the SC bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, directed WBSSC to re-examine the TET 2016 answer-sheets and differentiate between teachers appointed on merit and non-meritorious candidates. This task has to be completed by end-July.

Meanwhile the Calcutta high court’s cancellation of appointment of all teachers recruited under TET 2016 has triggered apprehension that teachers appointed after writing TET 2014 may suffer a similar fate following hearing of petitions alleging malpractices in TET 2014. A writ petition against TET 2014 is listed for hearing on June 12. If the petition is upheld, it could lead to cancellation of the recruitment of 42,000 candidates appointed primary school teachers. Cases alleging favouritism in compiling the final list of candidates who wrote this exam are pending in the Calcutta high court.

In this connection, it’s pertinent to note that the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) was introduced by West Bengal’s CPM government in 1998 and conducted smoothly until 2010 when the CPM which ruled Bengal uninterruptedly for 34 years (1977-2011) was routed by TMC in the legislative assembly election of 2011.

However, after TMC was swept to power in West Bengal in 2011, hundreds of writ petitions alleging irregularities and corruption in the annual TET have flooded the Calcutta high court. Although 98,648 teachers and non-teaching staff have been recruited and appointed through TETs in the past 13 years — 28,322 in 2012, 18,793 in 2013, 42,000 in 2015 and 9,533 in 2021 — of these teachers is tenuous with writs against recruitment also pending in the high court.

Nor are these widespread allegations of corruption in the teachers’ recruitment process and writ petitions flooding the courts without substance. On July 23, 2022 the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested education minister Partha Chatterjee who during a long innings as education minister (2014-21) in Banerjee’s cabinet had presided over WBSSE. Chatterjee’s arrest after a huge stash of Rs.100 crore in bank notes was found in the flat of his mistress, was followed by a spate of arrests of other WBSSE officials involved in the teacher recruitment scandal.

Tragically, two years after schools reopened following the country’s most prolonged schools closure in Bengal (99 weeks), children in government schools are at higher risk of learning loss and dropping out. With a large number of teachers dismissed, schools across the state are facing staff shortages which has disrupted recovery even two years after the Covid pandemic. With 80 percent of recruitment of teachers during TMC rule being exposed as illegal, the blame for West Bengal’s teacher recruitment freeze is increasingly being placed at the door of Chief Minister Banerjee.

Within a few days of writing this despatch, the writing is likely to appear on Banerjee’s wall. If BJP wins more seats than it won in General Election 2019, it will mark the beginning of the end for the chief minister and TMC. If not, Bengal’s government school children will continue to suffer poor learning outcomes.

Also read: West Bengal – Mamata Banerjee’s teacher troubles