The state primary education board has postponed the scheduled interviews, viva-voce, and aptitude tests for selecting candidates for primary school teacher appointments. This decision comes after the Election Commission sought a “factual report” regarding the screening process, as reported by the board president on Thursday.
In a letter from the chief electoral officer, the additional chief secretary of the education department has been asked to submit a factual report.
“In view of this development, we have decided to immediately postpone the interview/ viva-voce and aptitude test for the sixth phase, which was scheduled from April 6 to April 10. The subsequent phases have been postponed as well,” board president Gautam Paul said on Thursday afternoon.
“We have sent a factual report to the education department, explaining that holding an interview and aptitude tests is an ongoing process which was started well before the model code of conduct came into force on March 15 with the declaration of the election schedule,” he said.
The Assembly elections in Bengal will be held on April 23 and April 29.
Paul said they hoped that once the education department sends the report to the EC, the board would be able to resume the screening process.
The board issued a notice late on Wednesday saying the screening process has been postponed due to “unavoidable circumstances”.
The board is holding the screening exercise to shortlist candidates for the appointment of 13,421 assistant teachers at the government-aided primary schools (Classes I to V).
On Tuesday, the board president confirmed that the interviews set for April to select candidates for teaching jobs will take place as planned, since this process does not
violate the model code of conduct.
“The board had to postpone the exercise following a fresh review of the facts,” Paul said on Thursday.
The interviews and aptitude tests are being held in several phases, district-wise. It started in December and is likely to continue till September.
“A notice on the sixth phase screening exercise was published on March 12, three days before the model code of conduct came into force. Accordingly, we proceeded with the interviews and aptitude tests. After March 15, we held interviews of the previous phases for which notices had been announced well before March 15,” Paul said.
“As far as we understand, an ongoing process carried out by a statutory body does not violate the model code of conduct,” he said.
Earlier, while confirming that the interviews set for April to select candidates for teaching jobs will take place as planned, the board had sought legal opinion.
This was done after a job aspirant wrote to the Election Commission alleging that holding interviews after the declaration of the polls violates the model code of conduct. The aspirant had separately written to the board.
An education department official said the recruitment processes at the primary level could not be carried out for a long time following reports of irregularities in recruitments linked to the Teachers Eligibility Test notifications from 2014 and 2017.
The current recruitment has to be wrapped up at the earliest, as school students are suffering because of the absence of teachers, the official said.
There has been no TET over the past two years, as recruitments based on the tests held in 2022 and 2023 have not been completed.
Delay in completing the pending recruitments will further delay TET 2026.