The state school service commission (SSC) on Wednesday published a list of around 14,000 candidates to be called for counselling, resuming the process for hiring assistant teachers for the upper primary level (Classes VI to VIII) at government-aided schools.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court had refused to stay the recruitment process.

The commission said these candidates would be called for counselling — an interview before they are appointed — eight years after they wrote a written test and were shortlisted.

The commission will later announce the schedule of counselling, said Siddhartha Majumdar, the SSC chairperson.

“The counselling will start before the Puja vacation. An announcement will be made in a day or two,” he said.

An SSC official said they will issue appointment letters to those who will be recruited by the end of October in keeping with a deadline set by Calcutta High Court.

A high court division bench had on August 28 asked the commission to recruit 14,052 assistant teachers within eight weeks, turning down a petition of the “unsuccessful candidates” who, the court said could not halt the recruitment process on the ground that the results were “not palpable to them”.

The commission came out with the final merit list a day after a division bench of the Supreme Court headed by the Chief Justice of India dismissed a special leave petition seeking a stay on the order of the high court.

The apex court said in its order: “We are not inclined to entertain the special leave petition under Article 136 of the Constitution. The special leave petition is accordingly dismissed”.

Article 136 is invoked when a question of law of general public importance arises.

The commission has announced the cut-off marks for being called to the personality test in each subject on its website.

In pure science, the cut-off is 75.8667 out of 100.

Sushanta Ghosh, the president of the West Bengal Upper Primary Teaching Job Aspirants’ Forum said: “We are relieved that the commission has decided to go ahead with the recruitment process after a long gap.”

An official of the school education department said this is the first time in recent times that the SSC would recruit teachers.

He said the commission has been busy terminating the appointments it had made following complaints of irregularities under the directions of courts.

The SSC in February 2023 had cancelled the job recommendations issued to 775 people at the secondary level on the ground that they got their jobs through manipulation of marks.

On April 22, Calcutta High Court cancelled the appointments of over 25,700 teachers and non-teaching staff recruited to government-aided schools through the 2016 state-level selection test, saying it was impossible to know which appointment was legal and which was not.

The Supreme Court has granted an interim stay on the April 22 order and is hearing the case.

In an industry-starved state recruitment in schools has been a primary source of employment for years.

The termination of so many jobs and the uncertainty which hangs over those who have been appointed at the secondary and higher secondary level, has raised concerns about the employment scenario at large.

Amid this, the prospect of appointment at the upper primary level emerges as a ray of hope.