Mita Mukherjee

The state government will recruit 21,000 teachers including assistant teachers, headmasters and headmistresses for state-aided schools in Bengal and the selection of the candidates will be held strictly following the recruitment rules of the government, state education minister Bratya Basu said on Monday.

The process for recruiting the teachers will start before Durga puja festival which will be celebrated in October and the government will take all possible steps to complete the selections without any delay, the minister said. He also promised that the decision regarding the job seekers who are protesting the irregularities in the teacher recruitments held previously by the state school service commission, will be taken without delay.

“The recruitment will be held strictly according to the rules of the government and on the basis of merit,” the minister said. As for the agitating candidates he said the appointments cannot be given only on the grounds of sympathy. “ We also must understand the rules,” said Basu addressing a press conference after a meeting held today to discuss the recruitment of schoolteachers.

The minister called  an emergency meeting with senior officials of the school education department including the heads of the state school service commission, the president of the state board of secondary education to discuss the teacher recruitment process.

The recruitment will be held for appointing teachers and heads for state-aided upper primary, secondary, and higher secondary schools across Bengal.

The ruling Trinamul Congress government has been on the back foot following series of allegations regarding fraudulent recruitment of schoolteachers  and the education minister’s announcement to appoint 21,000 school teachers comes amid the controversy centering former education minister Partha Chatterjee who has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the West Bengal School Service Commission scam case.  

Chatterjee arrested on July 23 is accused of irregularities in the recruitment of teachers and non-teaching staff in state-aided and state-run schools in the state through the state School Service Commission.

The Central investigating agency has recovered over Rs 50 crores in cash and gold during raids on Chatterjee’s aide Arpita Mukherjee’s two flats in Kolkata. Mukherjee too has been arrested by the ED.

Following the arrests, Chatterjee who was the industry, commerce and enterprise, parliamentary affairs and public enterprises and industrial reconstruction minister in the Mamata Banerjee government was sacked from the cabinet.  Chatterjee was also suspended from the Trinamul Congress by the party. He was the secretary general of the party, national vice-president, national working committee member of the party and editor of the party mouth piece Jago Bangla.

Also Read: Bengal: Accused former education minister says he is victim of conspiracy