Kolkata: The publication of the preliminary interview list for recruitment of assistant teachers in classes XI-XII has triggered discontent among both untainted teachers and fresh candidates, with each group pressing for an increase in vacancies for different reasons.
The West Bengal School Service Commission published the list on Saturday night, calling over 20,000 candidates for document verification from November 18 against roughly 12,445 vacancies. Many of those excluded are untainted teachers who lost their jobs following the Supreme Court judgement of April 3, which cancelled appointments of nearly 26,000 teachers and non-teaching staff recruited through the 2016 process.
Although they have been allowed to remain in service until December 31, 2025, candidates who appeared only for the XI-XII examination and did not make the list now effectively face unemployment once the extension ends. Computer Science teacher Chandrani Saha from Hooghly, the sole breadwinner in her household, said health complications limited her preparation and she fell short by four marks.
Philosophy teacher Sweta Chakraborty, who had appeared only for the XI-XII examination, also missed the cut-off by four; she said she lost two experience marks after her joining was delayed earlier due to an administrative error. Chinmoy Mondal, who appeared for both XI-XII and IX-X, missed the XI-XII list by three marks. He expressed hope of being called for the IX-X interview but questioned the future of those with no second chance.
Another untainted teacher, Satyabrata Jana, described the cut-off as unusually high and argued that vacancies must be increased when many schools are already operating with staff shortages.
Fresh candidates, meanwhile, say they have been left out despite scoring high marks in the written examination because they could not claim the ten marks reserved for prior teaching experience.
They plan a march from Karunamoyee to Bikash Bhavan on Monday.
One candidate, Shishir Das, said he scored 57 out of 60 yet failed to make the list and claimed several others with 59 or even 60 marks were also excluded. Their demands include scrapping the experience-mark component, publication of all OMR sheets and an increase in vacancies.
However, untainted teachers dispute the claim that freshers have been broadly excluded. They point out that of about 20,000 candidates called for verification, 9,488—about 47.5 per cent—are freshers, suggesting nearly half of those shortlisted have no prior experience.