The Bengal School Service Commission has mentioned in the recommendation letters issued to the candidates appointed as upper primary school teachers that they have “graduated with a BEd degree”, a mandatory qualification for the post.

The commission said the qualification has been mentioned to ensure that no untrained candidates are appointed at the upper primary level (Classes V to VIII).

Allegations that untrained candidates had been recruited rocked the recruitment process at various tiers of school education level over the past few years.

The high court struck down the appointments of 36,000 primary teachers (Class I to V) last May, stating that the teachers lacked the mandatory training.

A notice issued by the commission on November 5 said: “This is to inform all concerned that for the purpose of eligibility, all types of ‘professional qualifications’ as laid down in sub-rule (u) of rule 2 of ‘The West Bengal School Service Commission (Selection for Appointment to the post of Teachers for Upper Primary Level of Schools) Rules, 2016’ are acceptable. Hence, recommendation letters of 1st SLST, 2016 (Upper Primary Level of Classes) are being issued with the description “Grad with B.Ed” in the
space earmarked for Qualification of the candidate (as admitted/considered by WBCSSC)”.

“We don’t want to leave scope for a fresh litigation. So it has been mentioned in the recommendation letters that only candidates with professional qualifications as laid down by the National Council for Teachers’ Education (NCTE) are being recruited,” said a commission official.

The case over recruiting untrained candidates at the primary level is pending before the Supreme Court after the state primary education board challenged the high court’s order.

In 2009, the NCTE made a BEd degree mandatory for anyone seeking a teaching job in a school.

It eased the rules in 2011, fixing March 31, 2014, as the deadline for Bengal to recruit untrained teachers on condition that they would get the requisite degree within two years of their appointment.

The Right to Education Act also makes BEd a compulsory qualification for all schoolteachers.

Later, the NCTE also said that candidates with a Diploma in elementary education could be appointed as school teachers.

The term “graduate with BEd degree” also denotes a 2-year diploma in elementary education, the council’s notification on November 5 clarified.

“There are varied forms of BEd degrees. So when we are saying that a candidate has graduated with BEd degree it denotes those varied types as listed in the notification and the DEld degrees. When the candidates join the schools with letters of recommendation, it will be easier for the heads of the institutions to realise that only the trained candidates have been appointed,” said Siddhartha Majumdar, the commission’s chairperson.