• 2023 TET results announced, 2022 candidates block MP, MLA’s cars
    The Statesman | 25 September 2025
  • The West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) on Wednesday announced the results of the Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) for primary schools, bringing relief to more than 300,000 applicants and intensifying calls for recruitment ahead of the Durga Puja festival.

    Meanwhile huge clashes broke out between the 2022 TET candidate and the police after the former put up a roadblock on Jessore Road even allegedly heckled MP Sougata Roy and MLA and Assembly chief whip Nirmal Ghosh, demanding immediate release of their appointment letters.

    The 2023 results, published online at 6 p.m. on the board’s official website, revealed that out of 309,054 candidates who applied for the exam, 273,147 appeared. Of them, 6,754 successfully cleared the test. Sixty-four candidates secured ranks within the top 10, according to board officials. The exam, conducted in December 2023, had faced months of delay in result publication due to disputes over the categorisation of candidates under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota. With the matter resolved, the board said that a notification for recruitment of primary school teachers would follow immediately after the results. “The file for clearance of vacant posts has already been sent to the state finance department for approval,” a senior official of the board said. “As soon as we receive the final nod, the recruitment process will start across the state.”

    The Supreme Court recently underscored the mandatory nature of TET, ruling that clearing the exam was essential not only for new appointments but also for promotions of teachers already in service. Following the directive, the board asked for district-wise data on working teachers who had not cleared TET. But while the board prepared to move forward, anger brewed among aspirants who have been waiting for years despite clearing earlier TET exams.

    On Wednesday afternoon, hundreds of successful candidates from the 2022 TET staged a demonstration demanding immediate recruitment at Barasat and took out a huge protest rally from Barasat.

    Among those caught in the blockade were Trinamul Congress leaders, including Dum Dum MP Sougata Roy and Panihati MLA Nirmal Ghosh, whose vehicles were stuck for nearly 30 minutes. The protesters surrounded them. Police rushed to the scene as demonstrators surrounded the leaders’ cars, voicing grievances directly to them.
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