HC admits plea against new primary teacher recruitment

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Thursday allowed the filing of a petition challenging the West Bengal Board of Primary Education’s (WBBPE) latest recruitment notification for teachers in government primary schools.

The vacation bench of Justice Om Narayan Rai granted permission to file the case, which is likely to be heard next week. The petitioners, a group of teacher job aspirants, have questioned the decision to begin a fresh recruitment process while a case concerning alleged errors in previous Teachers’ Eligibility Tests (TET) is still pending before the court. The TET is the mandatory qualifying examination for appointment as a primary teacher in the state.

The Primary Education Board recently announced its plan to fill 13,421 vacant teaching posts across state-run primary schools, with the application process scheduled to begin next week. However, several aspirants who had failed the 2017 and 2022 TET examinations have objected to the move, claiming that both tests contained nearly 20 incorrect questions. They argue that if marks for those disputed questions were awarded, many of them would qualify. The counsel of the petitioners’ counsel told the court that initiating a new recruitment process before deciding on the alleged errors would unfairly exclude thousands of eligible candidates.

The High Court had earlier constituted a committee to examine complaints about wrong questions in the TET papers. This matter remains sub judice. The new petition now adds another layer to the ongoing legal scrutiny of the state’s primary teacher recruitment process, which has already faced multiple challenges in recent years.