Petition in HC challenging job notification for primary teachers

A petition has been filed in the Calcutta High Court (HC) challenging the notification for the recruitment of 13,429 primary teachers in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided schools in the state.

The petitioners include several candidates who failed the Teacher Eligibility Tests (TET) conducted by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) in 2017 and 2022 respectively.

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They claim that they would have passed if ‘wrong’ questions in the tests were not included in the paper.

On Thursday, Justice Om Narayan Rai has approved the petitioners to file the case. A hearing of the case is likely to be held next week.

The WBBPE has decided to recruit 13,429 teachers in primary schools across the state. According to the notification, application process for recruitment in the vacant posts of primary teachers may start from next week.

A section of the failed candidates, who had appeared in the TET 2017 and 2022 exams are willing to appear in the fresh recruitment tests this time.

They claimed that around 20 questions in the previously held two TET examinations were incorrect. They would have passed if they got numbers against the 20 incorrect questions in the previous tests, they argued.

“Many of these candidates would have passed if they got numbers against the incorrect questions. Why did the primary education board issue notification for fresh recruitment process before it’s proved that questions were incorrect,” said Firdous Shamim, lawyer for the petitioners.