Sunday, 14 September 2025
Sunday, 14 September 2025
In all, 2,29,497 candidates appeared for the School Service Commission (SSC) examinations on Sunday for the recruitment of assistant teachers in classes 11 and 12 in West Bengal government-aided schools, officials said.
According to Education Minister Bratya Basu, the number constituted around 93 per cent of the total 2.46 lakh registered candidates.
The School Level Selection Test (SLST), being held after nine years, was conducted across 478 centres, all located in educational institutions.
Basu said 13,517 candidates were from outside the state, the majority from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
On September 7, 91 per cent of the 3.19 lakh candidates had turned up for the first phase of SLST exams, meant for the recruitment of assistant teachers in classes 9 and 10 at 636 centres.
Of them, 31,362 were from outside Bengal, again, mostly from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
"I don't want to make political comments, but these figures show how much the double-engine governments in the BJP-ruled states have succeeded or failed in tackling unemployment and creating job opportunities for the educated youth there," he added.
The fresh recruitment process comes after around 26,000 school teachers and non-teaching staff lost their jobs following a Supreme Court ruling that declared the 2016 recruitment process "tainted and vitiated."
Thanking the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) for ensuring transparency, Basu said, "There has been so much emphasis on OMR sheets and preservation of copies by candidates. Evaluation of papers and the interviews of qualified candidates will follow as per schedule. But I urge members of the Opposition to consider the hopes, aspirations and dreams of the candidates and the situation many of them are experiencing. We have initiated a process which is fair, transparent, and takes care of the interests of deserving candidates."
Chinmoy Mondal, one of the candidates and a member of the Deserving Teachers Rights Forum said, "We had qualified in the 2016 exams and still lost jobs due to the corruption by a section of those in the establishment. Today again my exams went off well. I hope that I will not be a victim of the circumstances again for the fault of the commission," he said.
