5.9 lakh candidates apply for teaching jobs in Bengal schools in SSC’s fresh recruitment drive

NEW DELHI: The number of applications for teaching positions in state-run schools in West Bengal for the School Service Commission (WBSSC)-initiated recruitment drive has nearly doubled in 2025 compared to the figure in 2016, figures from the enlistment authorities suggest. The enhanced application quantity was registered notwithstanding the fact that large-scale corruptions in the state’s school education sector prompted the Supreme Court to scrap the entire panel of the WBSSC’s 2016 appointments and order fresh recruitment.

Senior officials of the WBSSC told PTI on Tuesday that around 5.9 lakh candidates applied for the 35,726 assistant teacher posts at secondary and higher secondary levels in state-run and state-aided schools. The corresponding figure in 2016 was around 3.16 lakh. The online application portal, launched as per Supreme Court directions on June 16 to facilitate the process with the original July 14 deadline, expired at midnight on July 21. The top court mandated the West Bengal government and the commission to complete the recruitment process before December 31 this year.

"Some 5.8-5.9 lakh candidates have applied for the posts of assistant teachers in state-run and state-aided secondary and higher-secondary schools,” WBSSC Chairman Siddhartha Majumdar confirmed. “While a total of 1.41 lakh candidates had applied for classes 9-10 in 2016, another 1.75 lakh candidates had registered for teaching positions for classes 11-12 that year,” an official said, quoting commission records.

Large number of fresh applications despite resistance

The spike in the number of applications this year was recorded despite the assertion of a section of disgruntled teachers – who claimed eligibility for their appointments, yet lost their jobs on account of the apex court verdict – that they wouldn’t sit for fresh tests to get recruited. Commission officials revealed that a significant majority of teachers found ‘not tainted’ in the discredited 2016 appointment have freshly applied for jobs.

“Nearly 13,000 of the 15,403 teachers, who were ‘not found to be specifically tainted’ by the commission and whose names it had forwarded to the offices of Directorate of Education (DI) in districts for continuation in service till the new recruitment process gets over, have applied for the vacant posts for which State Level Selection Test (SLST) will be held later this year,” another SSC official said.

On May 30, the WBSSC issued a notification for the recruitment of 35,726 assistant teachers in Classes 9-12 in state-aided and state-run schools, in adherence to a Supreme Court directive. The apex court had asked the state government to file a compliance affidavit on the initiation of the recruitment process by May 31. On April 3, the Supreme Court scrapped the entire 2016 SLST recruitment panel on the grounds that it was “tainted and vitiated” beyond redemption, and annulled 25,753 appointments of teachers of Classes 9-12 as well as non-teaching Group C and Group D staff.

Also read SSC Exam Rules 2025: ID mismatch could bar entry; what leads to disqualification, debarment?

WBSSC clears 15,403 for service

The court, in modification of its initial judgment, ordered on April 17 that only teachers who will not be found tainted of gaining appointment through fraudulent means would be allowed to continue in service and receive salaries until December or till the fresh recruitment drive is completed, whichever is earlier. The WBSSC subsequently identified 15,403 out of 17,206 teachers as “not found to be specifically tainted”. The remaining 1,804 teachers have been barred from returning to schools.

Earlier this month, the Calcutta High Court dismissed appeals by the SSC and the state government to allow ‘ineligible and tainted’ candidates to participate in the new recruitment process. Chinmoy Mondal, an office bearer of the Deserving Teachers Rights Forum, said they had asked the eligible teachers not to sit for a fresh test after cracking the 2016 recruitment exams and working with reputation and goodwill in their respective institute all these years. However, another forum member said, “While we have not put in fresh applications, many others might have opted for the same in the wake of the High Court order barring the tainted teachers and non-teaching staff of the 2016 SSC exams from applying afresh.”