The school service commission is likely to come up with a fresh notification on the recruitment of schoolteachers at the secondary and higher secondary levels after May 27 so that the Supreme Court’s directive on submitting an affidavit on initiating the hiring drive can be filed by May 21, an education department official said on Friday.

The new recruitment rules, OBC reservation and the vacancy positions are likely to be discussed at the state cabinet meeting scheduled on May 27, the official said.

“Once these issues are approved at the cabinet meeting, the commission will publish the advertisement with the recruitment notification on May 28 or 29. If the
advertisement is not published by May 29, then the apex court’s April 17 order to submit an affidavit by that date cannot be complied with,” said the official.

The “not specifically found tainted” teachers — allowed to go to school till December and draw salaries — who are protesting outside Bikash Bhavan, would have to take part in the fresh recruitment process if the state’s review petition in the apex court against the termination of school jobs is turned down.

“Although the state government has filed the review petition against the Supreme Court’s April 3 order on the en masse termination, it is unlikely to be heard because the court’s summer vacation will start on May 24. So, we are going ahead with the publication of the recruitment notification. If the teachers who have been given relief are to continue their jobs after December 31, they have to participate in the fresh hiring process,” the official said.

Many of the 15,403 teachers “not specifically found tainted” are staging the Bikash Bhavan sit-in since May 7 because they don’t want to write a fresh selection test. They want to continue in their jobs without a fresh screening process.

These teachers will only be given an age relaxation for the fresh recruitment process in adherence with the apex court’s April 17 order, sources in the department said.

“The state government is almost ready with the vacancy positions. The officials of the school education department are working around the clock with the black classes department to finalise the new OBC composition for reservation in the vacant posts. The rules on the weightage to be
assigned to the written test and the academic score as part of the screening are ready. These need approval at the cabinet meeting,” said a source.

Contacted, SSC chairperson Siddhartha Majumdar declined to comment.