Over 500K apply for 35,726 teacher posts in Bengal, says WBSSC chief

Over 5 lakh candidates have so far applied for 35,726 assistant teacher posts in state-run and state-aided schools in West Bengal, a senior official said on Thursday.

An online application portal was launched on June 16 to facilitate the process, with the original July 14 deadline getting extended to July 21.

The number of applicants is 5 lakh-plus already. We are expecting the figure to go up," Chairman of the West Bengal School Service Commission Siddhartha Majumdar told PTI.

On May 30, the WBSSC had issued a notification for recruitment of 35,726 assistant teachers in Classes 9-12 in state-aided and state-run schools, in adherence to a Supreme Court directive.

The top court had asked the state government to file a compliance affidavit on the initiation of the recruitment process on or before May 31.

In April, the Supreme Court had scrapped the entire 2016 State Level Selection Test (SLST) recruitment panel, and annulled 25,753 appointments of teachers of Classes 9-12 as well as Group C and Group D staff.

In the 2016 SSC recruitment tests, over 3 lakh candidates had applied for teaching jobs, another WBSSC official said.

After the apex court's April order, the WBSSC had identified 15,403 out of 17,206 teachers as not found to be specifically tainted, allowing them to continue receiving salaries until December. The remaining 1,804 teachers have been barred from returning to schools.

Earlier this month, the Calcutta High Court dismissed appeals by the WBSSC and the state government to allow ineligible candidates to participate in the new recruitment process.