Bengal: First phase of counselling for assistant teacher post ends, 12% absentee

KOLKATA: More than 8,000 candidates were finalised in the first phase of counselling for the post of assistant teacher in upper primary level held by the West Bengal Central School Service Commission that ended on Saturday.

Around 12 per cent candidates were absent and around one per cent refused to take the acceptance letter for not being able to get schools in their preferred location. Apart from that, around 0.1 per cent candidates were rejected by the commission for academic mismatches. The counselling process started from November 6 and ended on Saturday.

Since the matter is subjudice and the commission will be able to hand out the recommendation letters only after the green signal from Calcutta High Court, the commission had specified in the notification earlier: “It is hereby made clear that participation of the candidates for the counselling shall not create any equity in their favour. It is further made clear that no recommendation based on the counselling shall be issued on the date of counselling and is subject to approval of the High Court.”

Generally it takes a month for the candidates who receive the recommendation letters to join the respective schools, in this case, it will depend as to if and when the court gives them green signal and later the commission will take some time to issue the recommendation letters.

When asked whether the candidates rejected schools because they were based in rural Bengal, the commission chairman Siddhartha Majumder told Millennium Post that no such information has surfaced.

He said: “It cannot be generalised. Candidates may have decided to not take up a school as it’s far away from their house and not because it is in a

rural area.”