Kolkata, Nov 17 (IANS) Around 50 per cent of the candidates, who qualified for the interview stage in the fresh recruitment drive for higher secondary teachers in West Bengal’s state-run schools, are fresher candidates, according to the list published by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).

The fresh recruitment is being carried out to fill vacancies created after a division bench of the Supreme Court cancelled about 26,000 school appointments earlier this year.

Since many working teachers, who were considered untainted, also lost their jobs as a result of the order that scrapped the entire 2016 panel, the Supreme Court allowed these untainted candidates to take part in the new recruitment process.

As per the written examination for the fresh recruitment process, both for the secondary and higher secondary teachers, were conducted in September this year, and the list of the candidates who have qualified for the interview was published on Saturday.

However, an evaluation of the list of candidates who have qualified for the interview showed that only 50 per cent of the “untainted” job-losing teachers have secured positions in the merit list for interview, which is the second stage of the fresh recruitment process.

Around 20,000 candidates, who had appeared for the written test for the fresh recruitment process, have qualified for the interview. The interview process for verifying their documents will begin on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court also accepted the Calcutta High Court’s argument that the entire panel had to be cancelled since despite repeated insistence both by the High Court as well as the apex court, neither the state education department nor the commission furnished two separate lists segregating the “untainted” candidates, from the “tainted” ones, who have proved beyond doubt of getting school-jobs paying money.

The apex court had directed that the entire fresh recruitment process would have to be completed by December 31 this year.

–IANS

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