The state government will take steps to fill vacancies in government and aided schools, many of which are facing a shortage of teaching staff, the new school education minister said on Thursday.

Asked about the recruitment of teachers at the secondary and higher secondary levels of government-aided schools, stalled now apparently because of the introduction of a new OBC reservation policy, minister Dipak Barman said “these are legal issues” and that they were looking into it.

The Supreme Court has mandated that over 35,000 teachers have to be recruited at the secondary and higher secondary levels by August 31.

“We will take steps to recruit teachers because there are several schools that do not have teachers.... Many schools had to be shut because of the absence of teachers,” the school education minister said.

Barman, himself the headmaster of a government-aided school in Alipurduar, said in response to a question on when regular recruitments through the school service commission (SSC) will resume: “There are so many cases.... We are looking into the issue. I am not going to comment immediately.”

Like the CPM-led Left government (1977-2011), the BJP has split education into two departments — higher education and school education.

Jagannath Chattopadhyay assumed charge of higher education on Wednesday.

According to many, one of the challenges of the school education department will
be to resume the teacher recruitments.

On May 20, Metro reported that the recruitments were stuck as the SSC was awaiting legal opinion on whether the Bengal government’s decision to implement 2010 OBC reservation norms — reducing the quota from 17% to 7% — would apply to ongoing recruitments.

A notification issued by the backward classes welfare department on May 18 stated that the 7% reservation for 66 classes would apply to “posts and services under the Bengal government”.

By the time the notice was issued, the SSC had already recommended around 3,500 higher secondary teachers (Classes XI and XII) for appointment in government-aided schools based on the reservation norms that included the 17% OBC quota followed by the erstwhile Mamata Banerjee government.

Although no appointments have yet been recommended for the secondary level (Classes IX and X), the 17% reservation was used while shortlisting candidates, sources in the commission said.

Sangita Saha, one of the teachers among the recommended candidates, said many of them had not received appointment letters from the state secondary education board following the confusion over the OBC reservations.

The candidates who are recommended by the SSC get their appointment letters from the secondary education board.

“We will urge the new minister to take steps so that we are appointed at the earliest. The teacher recruitment process resumed in Bengal last year after nine years. Now, that process has come to a halt,” said Saha.

The Trinamool Congress government had resumed the recruitment process following the termination of 17,209 teachers by the Supreme Court in April 2025 because their 2016 recruitment process was “vitiated”.

Rakesh Alam, one of the candidates who wrote the selection tests held in September 2025 and is awaiting an interview call from the SSC, said they would appeal to the school education minister to ensure that they continue to get salaries till the fresh recruitments are completed.

A section of the sacked but “untainted” school teachers had been allowed by the
Supreme Court to continue in service till August 31 and participate in the fresh recruitment process, to retain their jobs.

“It is unlikely that the recruitments will be completed by August 31, given the pace of work since the announcement of the new OBC norms. So we will request the school education minister to take steps by appealing to the Supreme Court, so we continue to get salaries beyond August,” he said.

The school education minister said one of his prime objectives was to bring students and teachers back to school.

“It has been observed that neither teachers nor students go to school. This needs to change,” Barman said.