Tuesday, 18 November 2025
Tuesday, 18 November 2025
Hundreds of Bengal government school teachers caught in the quagmire of the School Service Commission (SSC) hit the streets on Tuesday, the same day when the process of verification of the “qualified” and “selected” candidates started.
Since Monday, Karunamoyee in the Kolkata suburb of Salt Lake aka Bidhannagar has turned into a battlefield afresh with cops keeping a strict watch on any person who raises the “suspicion” of joining the protests.
The teachers’ vigil continued through Tuesday.
Acting on the instructions of the Supreme Court, the SSC has to complete the process of fresh recruitments for teaching and non-teaching staff, replacing by 31 December the jobs-for-money scam-tainted 2016 state-level selection test.
The apex court’s clear instruction to the state government, the Bengal education department and the SSC was that under no circumstances any of the tainted candidates who had secured jobs paying cash could be included in the fresh list.
The candidates who had appeared for the fresh exams held in September this year have alleged many of them were not called for the interview despite getting the required score – 60 out of 60 in the written test and 10 out of 10 for academic qualifications.
This apart, the SSC has decided to give an additional score of 10 to candidates with teaching experience. The number of such teachers is around 15, 403.
This last category of marks has led to resentment among the new candidates, who are afraid of losing out on a teaching job for their lack of experience.
Monday’s protest was led by these candidates, though the Bidhannagar cops foiled their attempt to block the SSC office.
While these protests were on, those candidates from the 2016 panel – who are now jobless too – hit the streets. They wanted to submit a memorandum at the SSC office.
At present there are 12,454 posts vacant at the higher secondary level, while 23, 514 vacancies exist at the secondary level. On Monday, Bengal education minister Bratya Basu hinted at increasing the number of posts.
“Definitely, I did have a preliminary discussion with the chief minister about raising the number of vacant seats. Nothing has been finalised. This will also have to be considered by the state cabinet. Until we receive a legal opinion, I cannot say anything formally,” Basu told the media at Salt Lake’s Bikash Bhawan. “… we will examine whether deserving candidates have been left out. We do not know that yet. The results of Classes IX and X – the secondary level tests are still pending. Once the whole recruitment process is over, if we find that deserving candidates have been left out, we will be sympathetic.”
CPM Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said any attempt to create more posts at this stage would be a violation of the law.
“They are trying to stir fresh trouble,” Bhattacharya said.
After the 2016 panel was hit by accusations of exchange of cash to secure jobs, the Mamata Banerjee government had created 6,861 supernumerary posts to accommodate those teachers and non-teaching staff who secured jobs through unfair means.
Though Calcutta High Court had ordered a CBI probe into the process of creating supernumerary posts, the apex court had set it aside.
