The state primary education board has decided against holding the recruitment tests this year to appoint teachers at the government-aided primary schools (Class I to V).

The decision comes after the board could not recruit teachers based on the tests held over the past two years owing to litigations.

The board held the Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) in December 2022 and 2023 but could not appoint teachers as lawsuits have beenfiled against the recruitment process.

Board president Gautam Paul said they don’t want to hold any tests afresh before carrying out the recruitment process based on the tests that have been already held before.

A division bench of Calcutta High Court in August set up a three-member expert committee to find out whether questions in the TET in 2017 and 2022 had errors.

“If we can’t appoint teachers, questions would be raised about why the board is holding the tests,” said the board president Gautam Paul.

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the Calcutta High Court’s directive to an expert committee, including representatives from Calcutta University, to look into the complaints about incorrect questions in the TET.

A bench comprising Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice J. B. Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra observed that there were no issues with Calcutta University’s participation in the committee formed to assess the alleged errors.

A special leave petition (SLP) was filed in the apex court objecting to the high court’s order.

An official of the primary board said: “The results of the TET examination held in December 2022, had been declared in February 2023. However, the recruitment could not be held because of the litigations. The results of the TET held in December 2023 could not even be published as the board failed to proceed with recruitment based on TET 2022. Amid this, the board has decided against holding the TET afresh this year.”

The board had appointed 7,000 teachers based on the TET 2017 that was held in January 2021.

However, the fate of these candidates hinges on what the expert committeewhich has representatives each from Visva Bharati University, Calcutta University and the primary education board says.

“Many are saying that the board president earlier said that the board would hold the recruitment examination each year. But if the litigations are filed against the recruitment process frequently, how the board could keep its commitment,” said Paul.

The school service commission (SSC) could proceed with recruitment at the upper primary level (Classes VI to VIII) after the Supreme Court dismissed a special leave petition which sought to stall the recruitment at the government-aided schools.

This SLP had challenged a Calcutta High Court order allowing the recruitmentprocess.

“It is unfortunate that cases are being filed at multiple levels to stall the recruitment process. We cannot deny that there were anomalies in the previous recruitment process, leading to the arrest of the former board president, Manik Bhattacharya, by the CBI in October 2022. But since 2022, we have taken a lot of corrective measures so the exams can be held transparently,” said an official of the primary board.

The new guidelines allow candidates to leave the exam hall/room only with the examinee’s copy of the OMR answer sheet (green in colour) and question booklet for TET.

A set of OMR sheets is being given to the candidates so they can tally their answers with the model answers that the board will later upload on its website, said a board official.

Calcutta High Court last month granted Bhattacharya bail.