The state government wants to start the process of recruitment to government-aided schools by Puja this year, education minister Bratya Basu said on Monday.
The assertion came days after High Court expressed displeasure over allegations that interventions by the court had stalled the school recruitment process. It had directed the government to initiate the process of filling up the vacant posts as early as possible.
On Monday, after a meeting with officials of the WestBengal Board of Secondary Education and the SchoolService Commission, Basu said: “We have 21,000 (vacant)fresh posts. Today’s meeting centred on recruitments to upper primary, Classes IX-Xand Classes XI-XII. The meeting had discussions on the vacant posts. There were some roster-related problems. Our law officer, chief secretary, the president and secretary of the board and the chairman of the commission discussed ways for a speedy solution to the roster-related problems so that we can get the fresh recruitments done at the earliest.”
“We are bringing in massive changes in the rules. The proposals will be sent to the law minister. We want to make the process full-proof with zero errors,” Basu said. “The roster work will focus on making each category error-proof. The categories are gender, nationality and post.... By Puja, we hope to start the process, tentatively,” he added.
Basu said the meeting did not discuss the additional posts created on the basis of a cabinet decision on May 5.
On the same day, the SSC announced that it would soon issue an advertisement for the recruitment of assistant teachers in secondary and higher secondary schools.
The additional positions were meant to be filled with candidates who had written recruitment tests conducted by the commission in 2016. A number of such candidates are holding a sit-in off the Maidan alleging that they were not being given jobs despite being on the waiting list of the panel.
“We did not discuss super-numerical posts in today’s meeting because we have already had a political meeting(on this issue) under the leadership of our national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. I did not attend the meeting as the education minister. I took part as a vice-president of Trinamul,” said Basu.
Banerjee and Basu on Friday met an eight-member delegation of SSC job aspirants and purportedly assured them that eligible people will be employed as teachers.
“In that meeting, it was decided that they (the protesters)will send me a letter by August 8. I am yet to receive the letter. On August 8, we will meet to discuss the legal possibilities,” Basu said on Monday.
On July 29, the education department filed an affidavit in Calcutta High Court, stating details about the vacancies in posts of teachers and assistant teachers in higher secondary, secondary and primary schools. The affidavit came in response to an order by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay. Allegations that interventions by the court had stalled the school recruitment process had prompted him to seek a report.
“It has been repeatedly said by political personalities that due to court orders, the government could not recruit teachers…. This court never prevented the government from filling up the vacancies in schools,” Justice Gangopadhyay had said. The judge did not name anybody but chief minister Mamata Banerjee has in the recent past talked about“17,000” teacher recruitments being stalled because of court cases.