Less than a week before the deadline to apply for the 35,726 assistant teacher posts in government and state-aided schools in West Bengal, the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) has received over 5.5 lakh applications.
The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday gave the go-ahead to the fresh recruitment, saying the new rules are more stringent and student centric.
Sources in the WBSSC said the number of applications surged significantly in recent days, especially after the Calcutta High Court barred “tainted” candidates from participating in the fresh recruitment in an order issued on July 9.
“As of July 13, the Commission had received around 4.5 lakh applications. Within three days, the figure rose by another one lakh,” said an official of the WBSSC.
After cancelling the appointment of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff in government-aided schools, terming the 2016 recruitment process “tainted”, the Supreme Court in April this year had directed the state government and the WBSSC to hold fresh recruitment of teaching staff and complete the process by the end of this year.
Accordingly, the WBSS issued a notification on May 30 for hiring 35,726 teachers — 23,312 for classes 9-10 and 12,514 posts for classes 11-12. While the original deadline was July 14, it was later extended to July 21.
Meanwhile, the Calcutta High Court, which was hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the May 30 recruitment notification, ordered the state government and the WBSSC to bar those identified as “tainted” candidates in the 2016 selection from appearing in the fresh recruitment process.
“Several of the untainted teachers have now started applying for the job after the High Court clarified that ‘tainted’ candidates would not be allowed to sit for the exam,” Mehabub Mondal of Jogya Shikshak Shikshika Adhikar Mancha (JSSAM), which is spearheading a protest over the sacking of teachers.
Nibedita Guin, another teacher hired in the 2016 selection and not found guilty of irregularities, said, “I have applied for the fresh hiring, but I don’t know what the outcome will be. It’s been years since I last took an exam. But since the order is to apply again, I will.”
The Supreme Court had identified 15,403 out of 17,206 teachers as “not found to be specifically tainted”, allowing them to continue receiving salaries until this December. The remaining 1,804 teachers have been barred from returning to schools.
On Wednesday, dismissing a bunch of appeals challenging the fresh recruitment notice, the Division Bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Smita Das De said: “Although the WBSSC and WBBSE are responsible for the present impasse that has adversely impacted and affected the education system, it is high time that all the vacancies are filled up if required by the clubbing the vacancies as the separate recruitment process for vacancies declared in 2016 and beyond it would cause serious inconvenience and delay in filling up existing vacancies.”
It said that the right to education guaranteed in Article 21-A clearly envisages quality education being imparted to the children which in turn would signify that the teacher must be meritorious and the best of the lot.
“Any process which applied equally to all the candidates and was designed to garner the best talent, cannot be called arbitrary or irrational,” the bench observed.
It said that the constitutional courts in a judicial review are not functioning as appellate authorities to examine the correctness, suitability and appropriateness of a policy, unless the court comes to a finding that there is any violation of fundamental rights of the citizen or is opposed to the provisions of the Constitution.
The bench said that it is the prerogative of the executive to decide how many appointments will be made.
“The interest of the student is of paramount consideration,” the Bench added.