Baishali Mukherjee

The Education Department of West Bengal under the West Bengal Public Service Commission (WBPSC) will soon recruit teachers for all the 84,000 government schools of the state. On December 31, WBPSC published a notification for the teacher recruitment in the state. The notification specifies positions for both Bengali-medium and English-medium schools (West Bengal Teacher Recruitment). The subjects for which applications can be submitted are also detailed in the notification. Recruitment will be conducted under the Subordinate Education Service (Group A) of the West Bengal State Government’s Education Department. The notification also lists subjects for both male and female teacher candidates.

Teachers will be recruited for Subjects like Bengali, Hindi, English, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Life Science, Political Science, Philosophy, Statistics, Economics, History, Geography, Nutrition, Education, HMFR, Sanskrit, Computer Applications, Computer Science, and Commerce. 

However, the Public Service Commission has not yet disclosed detailed information about the recruitment process including the number of vacancies, application procedures, start and end dates, fees, and other specifics. The details on this will be announced on the official website of the Public Service Commission in the coming days.

The announcement of recruitment teachers addresses a critical issue in West Bengal. The massive teacher recruitment drive for all 84,000 government schools across the state is aimed at addressing long-standing challenges in school education, plagued for the past decade with teacher recruitment freeze due to widespread scams and corruption, resulting in significant disruptions in the education system, including high dropout rates, closing of more than 8000 schools. The situation is particularly bad in the rural area. In many schools the average teacher-pupil ratio rose to 1:59 against the 1:35 prescribed by the Right of Children to Free & Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009. Learning outcomes have also taken a serious hit. According to the ASER report 2023, 34.4 percent couldn’t read basic class-II textbooks in their native Bengali language.

In the past few years demand for improved education and employment opportunities was mounting across the state. By delivering on this front, Mamata plans to demonstrate her commitment to core governance and developmental priorities. Teacher recruitment directly tackles unemployment, especially among the youth—a significant voter base. Creating jobs can considerably counteract the negative publicity stemming from corruption allegations. Moreover, showing responsiveness to grassroots issues, such as education, may also divert attention from recent controversies, while positioning Banerjee as a leader focused on development, before the 2026 assembly elections.

Also read: West Bengal launches teacher training for new higher secondary curriculum