The Bengal government would complete the recruitment process for assistant teachers at state-run primary schools across Bengal by April, education minister Bratya Basu said on Thursday, adding that 12,000 teachers would be recruited.
The West Bengal Board of Primary Education started interviewing candidates around the end of December, 2022. According to a primary board official, interviews have been completed in 13 districts and only a few are left. “Going by the primary board report, we hope to recruit around 12,000 teachers in primary schools by April,” Basu said.
West Bengal School Service Commission is also ready to appoint headmasters and teachers for upper primary and IX-X and XI-XII levels.
Basu indicated that West Bengal School Service Commission had made some changes to make the recruitment process transparent and that it would soon be placed in the cabinet meeting for final approval. Some changes that have been made in the draft copy include preservation of OMR sheets for at least 10 years for any query and video-recording of all interviews. These changes have been made as a safeguard for SSC in case of legal issues in future.
The primary board has started video-recording the interviews, with every phase of each interview in different districts being held in front of video cameras. “This requires certain changes in the primary education board rules. This has been done. The School Service Commission is also changing its rules,” Basu told reporters.
From December, the West Bengal Board of Primary Education started interviews to fill 11,765 vacant posts of assistant teachers in primary schools. Candidates, who had qualified Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) in 2017, 2014 and earlier had applied for the posts.
In addition, after a gap of five years, 6.1 lakh candidates appeared for TET. Around 6.9 lakh candidates enrolled for the exams, including 10,600 disabled candidates. The board published the results in two months.
