Over 2K special education teachers to be recruited in Bengal

Kolkata: To ensure inclusive education for children with special needs (CWSN), the state School Education department is expected to initiate the recruitment process for 2,583 regular special education teachers at the secondary level soon, following the recent approval of the relevant recruitment rules by the state Cabinet. A gazette notification is expected to be published shortly.

This move is in compliance with a 2021 Supreme Court directive, which mandated the state to create permanent positions for special education teachers based on pupil-teacher ratios and the recruitment of teachers for these regular positions. Currently, CWSN in state schools are served by special educators engaged on a contractual basis.

Following the Ministry of Education’s guidelines on pupil-teacher ratios, qualifications and recruitment processes for special education teachers, the state government decided to implement the recruitment in phases. The first phase will see the recruitment of 2,583 regular teachers at the secondary level for schools with more than 10 CWSN enrolled.

For this, the ‘West Bengal School Service Commission (Recruitment of Special Education Teachers) Rules, 2024’ were drafted and approved by the Cabinet. According to these new recruitment rules, the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) will act as the selecting authority, while the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education will be the appointing authority. 80 per cent of the weightage will be given to candidates’ performance in the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) or Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET), with the remaining 20 per cent allocated to classroom teaching demonstrations and interview scores.

The WBSSC is expected to begin the recruitment process after the gazette notification is issued. However, sources within the School Education department indicate potential delays due to ongoing legal challenges related to the OBC (Other Backward Classes) status of several castes.