The government will recruit teachers for the English-medium sections coming up in the 40 state-run schools to ensure that the existing teachers are not overworked.

Sources said the proposal for creating 200 posts for these schools, cleared by the state finance department, is pending before the cabinet.

Of the 40 schools, 10 will start English-medium wings in the secondary section in the coming academic year, to start in May. Among them are Hindu, Hare, Bethune, Sakhawat Memorial and BD Government schools.

In the Plus II level, all the state-run schools will be allowed to start English-medium wings this year.

“For now, we will create at least three posts for the Higher Secondary section and three for the primary and secondary sections of each school. Later, more posts can be created, depending on the requirement,” said an education department official.

“The government does not want to engage the existing teachers in the English-medium wings as that would make the Bengali-medium students suffer. We don’t want the teachers to get overworked,” said Dibyen Mukherjee, the director of school education.

He, however, added that the West Bengal Public Service Commission will take some time to conduct a test for the recruitment of the teachers.