Mita Mukherjee
The Bengal state School Service Commission on Wednesday started the process of appointing 14,052 assistant teachers for upper primary classes (VI to VIII) at government-aided schools in compliance with Calcutta High Court order.
As directed by the court, the commission today published a list of candidates who will be soon called for interview before they are appointed.
“The list of names of candidates to be called for counselling will be available on the commission’s official website after 5pm on Wednesday. The schedule for counselling of the candidates will be announced in a day or two,” Siddhartha Majumdar, chairperson of the commission told EducationWorld today.
A division bench of Calcutta High Court on August 28 had directed the West Bengal School Service Commission to recruit 14,052 assistant teachers for classes VI to VIII rejecting a number of petitions by several unsuccessful candidates who complained about irregularities in the selection process. The petitions resulted in long delay in completing the recruitment of the teachers.
The written test for shortlisting the teachers were held eight years ago. But, the recruitment process were stalled because of the litigations alleging irregularities.
The names of candidates who filed the petitions had figured on merit list but they were not called for counselling — interview before they are finally appointed.
The court in its order had said the unsuccessful candidates could not ” frustrate the selection process since the results are not palatable to them.”
According to a source in the commission, the merit list was prepared on the basis of the candidates’ performance in written test. But, the candidates are called for interview taking their performance in school-leaving examinations and their undergraduate and postgraduate scores into consideration.
Commission chairperson Majumdar said, ” There is an interpretation of every order. We will fully comply with our interpretation of the order and act according to the advice of the court.”
The court had asked the commission in its August 28 order that the appointment letters should be issued within eight weeks from that date. “We will conduct the counselling and issue the appointment letters complying with the court order. We are looking forward to complete the counselling of the first batch before Durga Puja ” said Majumdar.
