The state primary education board’s president confirmed on Tuesday that the interviews set for April to select candidates for teaching jobs will take place as planned, since this process does not violate the model code of conduct.

The board had sought legal opinion after a job aspirant wrote to the Election Commission alleging that holding interviews after the declaration of the polls violates the model code of conduct.

The polls in Bengal will be held on April 23 and 29. The results will be out on May 4.

Initiated in January, the interviews will be conducted throughout April to select candidates for 13,421 primary-level (Classes I to V) teaching posts.

“The legal opinion that the board received says that, as the board’s recruitment notification was issued before March 15, it does not violate the code. Although the Election Commission did not write to us, the board took a legal opinion. We will hold interviews in April as scheduled,” board president Gautam Paul said.

The board, however, will not issue the letters of recommendation during the election, he added.

“We are not going to issue any appointment letters now. But we want to complete the processes so that we can start issuing the appointment letters once the model code of conduct is lifted,” Paul said.

Recently, Calcutta University obtained permission from the Election Commission before holding its convocation on March 23.

Last September, the board announced its decision to appoint 13,421 teachers in government-aided primary schools.

The announcement had come a day after the board published the results of the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) held in December 2023 to shortlist candidates for teaching posts.

According to an official from the education department, recruitment processes at the primary level did not take place for a long time following reports of irregularities in the past recruitments linked to the TET notifications from 2014 and 2017.

The seeds of the controversy date back to 2014 when the TET notification was published. The board conducted the test in 2015.

As many as 42,500 primary teachers were recruited in 2016. Some candidates who did not make it to the list filed a petition in the high court in 2018, alleging irregularities in the recruitment process. They allege that the posts were sold for money.

The recruitment against which the petition had been filed at the high court was finally cleared in January, with the court quashing the allegations.

Former board president Manik Bhattacharya was in jail for nearly two years after being arrested in October 2022 following complaints of irregularities. He is now out on bail.

“We have taken steps so that the recruitments take place fairly. From 2022, candidates are handed a carbon copy of the OMR sheet where they have bubbled answers,” the official said.

“The recruitment has to be wrapped up at the earliest as schools are suffering because of the absence of teachers,” the official added.

A board official said there has been no TET over the past two years, as recruitments based on the tests held in 2022 and 2023 had not been completed.

“So, any delay in completing the pending recruitments could come in the way of holding the TET in 2026,” said a board official.