Bengal schoolteacher recruitment process stalls after change in state leadership
Telegraph | 8 May 2026
A change in leadership in Bengal has brought a time-bound Supreme Court–mandated schoolteacher recruitment process to a halt.
The school service commission (SSC) had planned to resume counselling for recommending candidates for higher secondary (Classes XI and XII) teaching posts after May 4, the day of vote counting.
It had also scheduled interviews for secondary-level (Classes IX and X) teaching positions after that date.
Although the Supreme Court has directed that the recruitment process be completed by August 31, the commission has been unable to proceed.
An SSC official said both counselling and interviews have been put on hold as the education department has yet to provide vacancy figures, pending the appointment of a new education minister.
A commission official said that although the Supreme Court has mandated that the recruitment process be wrapped up by August 31, the commission has stalled with the counselling and interview process due to the lack of a fresh vacancy list.
The education department is awaiting the appointment of a new education minister and has yet to share the vacancy figures.
Sources said the SSC chairperson nearly resigned on the night of May 4 but ultimately did not submit his resignation. When contacted, Siddhartha Majumdar declined to comment.
The commission is tasked with filling 12,514 higher secondary teaching posts and 23,314 secondary-level positions in government-aided schools.
Plans to begin scanning answer scripts from May 12 for a selection test held in early March for non-teaching staff recruitment have also been put on hold.
On April 4, 2025, the Supreme Court terminated the jobs of 17,209 teachers for irregularities in the 2016 recruitment process and directed the SSC to fill the vacancies through a fresh recruitment.
Initially, the court set a December 31, 2025, deadline to wrap up the recruitment process, which was later extended to August 31, 2026, after the SSC cited delays due to ongoing litigation.
An SSC official said counselling for candidates who had cleared the selection test and interviews began in January and was expected to end by May.
“The process was paused briefly because of elections in April and was supposed to resume in early May. However, it has not restarted because the department has not provided the vacancy list,” the official said, expressing concern over meeting the August 31 deadline.
Several aspiring teachers who have been recommended are still struggling to secure jobs due to alleged discrepancies in the department’s vacancy list. The issue escalated to the point that board president Ramanuj Ganguly recently wrote to the department seeking corrective action.
“We expected a revised vacancy list for the higher secondary level to ensure a smooth recruitment process, but that has not been provided,” the official added.
Early in April, the state primary education board postponed the scheduled interviews, viva-voce, and aptitude tests for primary schoolteacher appointments.
The decision came after the Election Commission sought a “factual report” regarding the screening process.
The poll panel, however, had not objected to the recruitment process at the HS level during the model code of conduct period.
After the HS level, the commission had planned to move to the secondary level. For now, the whole process remains stalled.