The Bengal government will appoint over 32,000 schoolteachers at the upper primary and primary levels by March 2022, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said on Monday.

“The appointment process to fill at least 14,000 vacancies in the upper primary level (Classes V to VIII) and 10,500 in the primary level (Classes I to IV) will be completed before Durga Puja in October. Around 7,500 more posts of primary teachers will be filled by March 2022. So around 32,000 teachers will be appointed by next March. This will definitely help our school education,” the chief minister said.

“Those who have passed the examinations (teacher eligibility test) are eligible for the jobs. The appointments were stuck because of court cases.”

Aspiring teachers had been among the most vocal critics of the Mamata Banerjee government ahead of the Assembly elections. Their grouse stemmed from the fact that the recruitment of teachers for primary schools had been stalled for years.

The recruitment at the primary and upper primary levels had earlier been stayed by the high court following allegations that the process lacked transparency. The court later vacated the stay on primary teacher recruitment following an appeal by the state government.

The West Bengal Board of Primary Education will appoint teachers at the primary level based on vacancy reports submitted by the district primary school councils.

The school service commission will appoint teachers at the upper primary level based on vacancy reports from the respective schools.

The high court had on December 11 quashed the process for recruiting nearly 15,000 teachers at the upper primary level following a complaint of discrepancies in the list.

Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya had directed the commission to start the recruitment process afresh following the guidelines of the National Council for Teacher Education, which mandates that candidates with a BEd degree will be given first preference.

An official of the school education department said: “The commission was instructed to start the process on January 4. The verification of candidates and preparation of merit list were to be completed by May 31, and the recruitment by August 14. Since the process has been completed, the recruitment has been announced by the chief minister.”

A high court judge had on February 22 ordered an interim stay on the recruitment of 16,500 primary school teachers following complaints of discrepancies in the merit list. A division bench later stayed the order, saying the judiciary should not prevent an elected government from executing its plan.