The School Service Commission has recommended the appointments of 1,240 candidates as physical education and work education teachers in supernumerary posts in government-aided schools.
The recommendation came a day after the Supreme Court set aside Calcutta High Court’s direction for a CBI inquiry into the Bengal government’s decision to create supernumerary posts for 6,861 teaching and non-teaching staff in 2022.
From that pool of 6,861 posts, the 1,240 candidates would be appointed as physical education and work education teachers.
The state government had created 1,500 supernumerary posts for physical and work education.
The SSC has recommended the names of the candidates to the state secondary education board, which gives appointment letters to those recommended for teaching posts in secondary and higher secondary schools.
"It was not that any illegality prompted the state government to create the supernumerary posts," said a source. Many waitlisted candidates said they wouldn't get a chance to be recruited as their age limit would expire by the time the next recruitment phase arrived, and hence, the state government created extra posts so they could be absorbed, the source said.
The age limit for general category candidates is 37 years for these posts.
An education department official said these candidates, who took the written test in 2017, were counselled in November 2022 by the commission. Their names could not be recommended as a case had been filed in Calcutta High Court challenging the aim of creating these supernumerary posts.