Recruitment of 12,000 primary teachers finalised

The president of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education Manik Bhattacharya on Tuesday said that around 12,000 primary teachers will join service by the weekend, after the results of the Teachers Eligibility Test interview were announced.

Results of the interview of the first batch of candidates were announced Tuesday evening. They will be informed through SMS and e-mail by the Board. The successful candidates will be required to take copies of the e-mail or SMS to the office of District Inspector of Schools to select the schools and get the appointment letter.

"The new teachers will be able to join the schools by this weekend," Bhattacharya said, adding the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had asked them to take steps to appoint primary school teachers at the earliest.

There were 41,628 posts for teachers lying vacant in the primary schools across the state. For this, 15.25 lakh candidates appeared for the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET).

Bhattacharya said the subsequent lists would be announced soon. The Bengal government took some time to publish the results as steps were being taken to maintain transparency.

It may be recalled that Mamata Banerjee had directed filling up the vacant posts of teachers at the earliest as many schools are facing acute shortage of staff.

The teachers in such schools are left no choice but to club students of successive classes and teach them simultaneously. For instance, sometimes Class II and Class III are taught together, while at other times Class III and Class IV are given lessons in the same room.

"All these problems will be over once the new teachers are appointed," Bhattacharya said.

Meanwhile, the state government will not be able to publish the results of School Service Commission examination for appointing secondary school teachers for the next two weeks, following an order of the Calcutta High Court.

Justice Arijit Bandopadhyay on Tuesday postponed the date for publishing the results by two weeks, adding that he will give further instructions in the matter.

A B.Ed degree is must for teaching students of Classes IX, X, XI and XII. The West Bengal School Service Commission had appealed that without this degree no one should be allowed to sit for the examination.

Challenging this decision – 119 people including main petitioner Sunil Das – filed a petition before the High Court. They demanded that the degree offered by Rehabilitation Council of India was at par with B Ed. The Court on Tuesday said the results of School Service Commission examination could not be published till the dispute over the validity of the degree was settled.