Kolkata, Oct 23 (IANS) With the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) having decided to conduct zone-wise interviews for fresh recruitment for teaching staff in state-run schools in the state, questions are being raised about the fairness of the zone-wise interviews.

The process of fresh recruitment is happening following the cancellation of the 25,753 school jobs by the Supreme Court earlier this year.

The written examination for fresh recruitment of secondary and higher secondary sections has already been completed and the results of the written examination are expected very soon, following which the interview process will start.

Now, the WBSSC is in favour of interviewing in a zone-wise manner in five zones for quick completion of the interview process, as was done the last time in 2016.

“The Supreme Court directed that the fresh recruitment process will have to be concluded by December 31, 2025. So with such little time left to complete the entire recruitment process, we are in favour of zone-wise interviews, since the centralized interview at one place will consume too much time,” a WBSSC official said.

The five zones, proposed by WBSSC, for which the interviews will be conducted, are southern, northern, eastern, western, and southeastern.

However, the “untainted” teachers who also lost jobs like “tainted” ones following the apex court order and who have appeared for the written examination for fresh recruitment want the interview to be conducted in a centralised pattern instead of zone-wise patterns.

Such “untainted” teachers united under the banner of “Jogyo Shikshak-Shikshika Adhikar Mancha (Untainted Teachers’ Rights Forum)” are against these zone-wise interviews on two grounds.

Their first argument is that when WBSSC is conducting the interview for recruitment of upper primary teachers for state-run schools in a centralised manner, the same pattern should be followed in the case of fresh recruitment of secondary and higher teachers.

“The commission cannot follow different interview patterns for different sections of teaching staff,” said a forum office-bearer.

Secondly, he added, the fairness of zone-wise interviews is highly questionable, since there are high possibilities of different interview score patterns for different zones. “But a centralized interview will have a uniform interview score pattern,” the forum office bearer said.

–IANS

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