Bengal SSC to publish upper primary merit list on Sept 25

Kolkata: The West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) announced on Monday that the final merit list for recruiting Assistant Teachers (AT) at the Upper Primary Level will be published on Wednesday, September 25.

This decision follows a directive from the Calcutta High Court on August 28, which allowed the recruitment process to move forward after nearly a decade of legal disputes. The court instructed the WBSSC to prepare and publish the final merit list within four weeks. Initially, the commission considered filing a review petition to clarify certain ambiguities in the High Court’s order. However, they ultimately decided to comply with the court’s directive.

Siddhartha Majumder, Chairman of WBSSC, stated: “We have consulted with lawyers and decided to proceed. It may not be the perfect solution, but under the circumstances, it is acceptable.” The court also directed the commission to conduct fresh counselling for 14,052 candidates who appeared for the personality test (PT) and to recommend them within four weeks after the merit list is published. However, there are about 100 candidates with irregularities in their caste category certificates or educational qualifications.

The commission has decided not to include any illegal candidates in the panel. “There will be no illegal candidates in the merit list. The HC has not recognized re-evaluation or OMR. But that doesn’t mean we can’t check documents regarding caste, exam results, or date of birth,” said a WBSSC official. There are a total of 14,339 vacancies at the upper primary level. Excluding the 100 candidates with irregularities, the panel will be prepared. However, not all candidates are expected to be featured in the final merit list due to mismatches in different categories. For example, a history candidate cannot be listed in the geography merit list, and a male candidate cannot be recommended for a

female-only vacancy.

The schedule for the first phase of counselling will be published after the panel is released. Meanwhile, on Monday, thousands of job aspirants protested in front of Acharya Sadan, the WBSSC office in Saltlake, demanding the immediate publication of the panel and counselling appointments. The police forcefully

removed protesters.