– Mita Mukherjee
The West Bengal government will recruit 32,000 school teachers for state-aided primary and upper primary schools in the state, chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Monday.
Around 25,000 teachers including 10,500 for the primary schools and 14,000 for the upper primary classes (V to VIII) will be given appointment within October, before Durga Puja, the chief minister said. The remaining 7,500 primary teachers will be recruited within March 2022, the chief minister said.
The selection process will be based entirely on merit and only the deserving candidates will be selected for the job, the chief minister said.
“The selection will be held only on the basis of merit. Those who have cleared the recruitment tests successfully will get the job. There is no need for lobbying,” the chief minister said.
The chief minister’s statement is significant as the Opposition parties in Bengal, mainly the BJP had been complaining about “rampant” corruption in the selection process followed by the ruling Trinamul Congress government for recruiting school teachers.
Teacher recruitment in West Bengal had been pending for more than five years because of court cases. In November last year, the chief minister had announced that 16,500 odd vacant posts of teachers in the primary schools would be filled. A merit list of 15,000 candidates was prepared from among candidates who cleared the teacher eligibility test (TET) held in 2015.
The state government had a plan to complete the recruitment before the Assembly elections that were held in March-April. But the process was held up because several candidates whose names did not figure on the merit list moved court alleging anomalies. The selection process was delayed also because of Covid-19, an official in the school education department said.
Admitting the legal tangles, the chief minister today said: “The recruitment process was held up because of the court cases.”
The written tests for the vacant post in the upper primary classes too was held several years ago.
According to sources in the school education department, the interviews of the candidates aspiring for the 10,500 primary school teacher posts are already complete. The aspirants for these posts had cleared the written tests in 2015. The candidates aspiring for the 7500 primary teacher posts cleared the written tests in January. Their interviews will be held soon.
The interviews of candidates for filling the 14,000 odd vacant posts in the upper primary classes are also pending, the school education department official said.