The school service commission will start the recruitment process for teachers on Monday, after a nine-year gap.

Applications for the post of assistant teacher at government-aided schools can be submitted online from Monday, as part of the recruitment exercise.

An SSC official said a link would be uploaded on the commission’s website by Monday afternoon, stating that application forms can be submitted from 5pm on June 16 to July 14.

The SSC has tentatively scheduled the written tests for the first week of September. On offer are 23,312 teaching posts at the secondary level and 12,514 at the higher secondary level.

The Supreme Court on April 3 terminated the jobs of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff of government-aided schools in Bengal, because it said the entire recruitment process was "vitiated". These employees had taken a test in November 2016.

On April 17, the court modified its order, allowing teachers "not specifically found tainted" to continue working and draw salaries until December 31. But they would have to appear for a fresh test to retain their jobs beyond that date, it said.

Following the ruling, the state education department issued a notification on May 30 announcing that a fresh recruitment drive would begin on June 16.

The recruitment notification uploaded by the SSC on May 30 stated that the results of the selection tests are likely to be published in the fourth week of October.

“Interviews are tentatively scheduled between the first and third weeks of November. The panel of selected candidates is expected to be published on November 24. This will be followed by the commencement of counselling and recommendations, tentatively on November 29,” said an SSC official.

The schedule has been finalised to ensure the recruitment process is completed by December. The SSC submitted a detailed calendar to the Supreme Court in an affidavit on May 30.

“Since both the SSC and the state government have filed petitions seeking a review of the Supreme Court’s April 3 order on the termination of teachers’ jobs, and the fresh selection tests are mainly to fill vacancies caused by these terminations, the dates for the tests, interviews, result announcements and counselling have been announced tentatively. But we need to be prepared, so the submission of application forms will begin,” said the official.

The apex court is likely to hear the petitions next month after the court resumes on July 15, following the summer vacation.

The SSC had held the last recruitment tests in November 2016.

No recruitment was held in between because of a barrage of litigations challenging alleged illegalities in the recruitment process based on the test conducted in 2016.

Teachers’ protest

The SSC will proceed with the application window, disregarding protests by the sacked schoolteachers who are opposed to the fresh tests.

Their counsels are likely to mention their plea in Calcutta High Court, seeking a stay on the process.

“Since the SSC has stopped short of announcing the dates of the recruitment tests as it looks forward to the disposal of the petitions, we also want it to suspend the recruitment process till the petitions are disposed of,” said Mehboob Mandal, a sacked teacher.

Ten sacked teachers have been on an indefinite hunger strike since late Thursday at Salt Lake’s Central Park, opposite Bikash Bhavan, the education secretariat. They are protesting the government’s decision to start the hiring drive.

Five of them were admitted to hospitals on Sunday evening after their conditions worsened. Chinmoy Mandal and Balaram Biswas are among those admitted, the protesters said.

Mandal was admitted to NRS Medical College and Hospital, while Biswas was admitted to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

An SSC official said they started the recruitment process in pursuance of the Supreme Court’s April 17 order, in which they had been directed to complete the exercise by December 31.

Contacted, SSC chairperson Siddhartha Majumdar declined to comment.