SSC interviews of shortlisted candidates to begin in November, says Bratya Basu
Telegraph | 16 September 2025
Interviews of the shortlisted candidates for the position of assistant teachers at the secondary (Classes IX and X) and higher secondary (Classes XI and XII) levels of the government-aided schools will start in November, education minister Bratya Basu said on Sunday.
The minister announced this at a news conference hours after the school service commission (SSC) conducted the test to shortlist the teaching job aspirants at the higher secondary level.
The commission will complete the recruitment exercise within December 31, as ordered by the Supreme Court, he said.
A similar exercise to shortlist candidates at secondary level was held last Sunday.
“The tests have been conducted in a transparent way. The interview of the shortlisted candidates will be held in November. The commission will come up with a detailed roster later,” said Basu.
SSC chairperson Siddhartha Majumdar on Sunday said that the model answers for the tests held on September 7 will be uploaded on September 16 on the commission’s website.
“The model answers for the tests held today are likely to be uploaded on the website on September 20. The commission will invite challenges from those who wrote the tests and will then draw the final answer keys based on which the scripts will be evaluated after the Puja vacation,” said Majumdar.
He said candidates will be given five days — starting from the day the model answers are uploaded — to challenge.
The commission has this year allowed examinees to retain the carbon copy of the optical mark recorder (OMR) sheets.
“The candidates will check what has been uploaded as model answers... If they think any of the model answer is incorrect, they can challenge the answers... Our subject experts will go through the responses and decide accordingly,” said an SSC official.
Minister Basu said the commission this year will upload the list of the candidates who have been shortlisted for the interview.
“A detailed break up of marks of the shortlisted candidates who will be called for interview will be uploaded on the commission’s website,” said Basu.
He said out of the 2.46 lakh candidates who submitted their application forms, 2,29,497 candidates took the tests on September 14.
Out of the 3.19 lakh applicants, 2,91,127 wrote the tests at the secondary level on September 7.
The minister said, a little over 44,000 candidates from outside Bengal wrote the tests.
“Bulk of the outstation candidates were from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and this showed that the governments in these two states had failed to create jobs for youths despite tall claims...,” said Basu.
When asked whether the so many outstation candidates taking the examinations would reduce the chances of getting jobs for the candidates form Bengal, Basu said: “We don’t have any domicile policy. Anyone who is eligible can apply. The outstation candidates have mainly applied for Hindi and English.”