Merit list cheer for ‘untainted’ teachers; 300 remain uncertain for jobs
Telegraph | 23 January 2026
All the 8,300 “untainted” but sacked teachers who had made it to the interview round of the ongoing teacher selection process are on the merit list published by the school service commission on Thursday, but not all of them are likely to secure jobs.
Over 9,500 untainted but sacked teachers had written the test to retain their jobs as assistant teachers at the higher secondary level (Classes XI and XII), sources in the state education department said.
“Among the 9,500, around 8,300 had been called for interviews. Of those interviewed, around 300 are unlikely to get jobs as they are at the bottom tier of the waiting list,” a source said.
The merit list of 18,900 features 10,000 “empanelled” candidates who will be offered jobs first; the rest are on a waiting list.
“Those on the ‘empanelled’ list are sure to be called for counselling and given job offers. Those who feature in the upper tiers of the waiting list too can expect to be called for counselling,” an education department official said.
Some 12,445 teaching posts are on offer at the plus-II level.
The commission is likely to announce the schedule for counselling on January 27.
Counselling is a process where the candidates are asked to select schools based on the availability of vacancies in a zone. Some tend to refuse the job offer if the posting is not a preferred one.
“Once those on the merit list get their letters of appointment after the counselling, we can say they have retained their jobs,” a source in the education department said.
An SSC official said: “We are relieved that all the untainted teachers who appeared in the interviews have made it to the merit list. Ninety per cent of them are expected to retain their jobs.
“It was unfortunate that they had to take part in a fresh selection process to retain their jobs.”
On April 3, 2025, the Supreme Court had terminated the jobs of 17,209 teachers at the secondary and higher secondary levels on the grounds of a “vitiated” recruitment process conducted by the SSC in 2016.
The court later said that those who were “untainted” among the sacked teachers could continue in their posts, and receive salaries, till the completion of the fresh selection process.
“Justice would have been done if all the untainted teachers at the plus-II level who wrote the selection test got a chance to retain their jobs,” Sangita Saha, a spokesperson for the untainted but terminated teachers, said.
“It was not easy for us to appear in fresh selections 10 years after we wrote the tests. It was a traumatic experience for all of us.”
The combined number of secondary and higher secondary teachers sacked despite being untainted was 15,403.
Among them, 14,300 candidates wrote the selection tests on September 7 (for the secondary level) and September 14 (for the higher secondary level).
An SSC official said the commission planned to complete the recruitment process for the plus-II posts by the end of April.