Addressing thousands of job aspirants across the state, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced that the state will conduct all future school teacher and staff recruitments strictly on the basis of merit, examination performance, and full compliance with judicial mandates.

Speaking at a Teachers’ Day event, Chief Minister Adhikari pledged to restore integrity to the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC). Directing a jab at the previous Trinamool Congress administration, he remarked, “Humans learn from mistakes,” promising an error-free, transparent hiring system going forward.

Key Highlights of the Recruitment Reforms :

Restructuring the Selection System

To regain public trust, the Chief Minister highlighted that the management of the recruitment framework has been entrusted to highly respected, non-partisan figures.

“Can the respected monks who run the Ramakrishna Mission monks who have renounced everything ever do anything wrong? The West Bengal government has handed the teacher recruitment responsibility into their hands. In addition to three Ramakrishna Mission monks, we have also appointed a representative from IIM as a member of the SSC,”* stated CM Suvendu Adhikari.

Adhikari confirmed that the revamped WBSSC is fully prepared to execute appointments in accordance with directives from the High Court and the Supreme Court. He added that the government corrected former discrepancies regarding the OBC reservation list through an Assembly bill and subsequently sought judicial clearance to move forward with the hiring process.

Refusing informal notification practices, the Chief Minister instructed the SSC to publish complete, transparent selection lists publicly rather than notifying candidates privately via mobile messages.

Curbing Interview Manipulation & Expanding School Hiring

Criticizing the previous regime’s practice of allocating 15 marks to oral interviews, Adhikari questioned whether high interview weightages were used to facilitate favoritism. He advised the SSC to cap interview marks at a maximum of 5 to ensure written exam results remain the primary decider.

Beyond teaching positions, the Chief Minister noted that non-teaching personnel—including laboratory assistants, clerks, and school caretakers—must also be hired so that educators can focus on teaching rather than administrative burdens like Mid-Day Meal accounting. He also criticized past budget allocations, promising that essential infrastructure grants (composite grants) would be provided directly to state-aided schools to cover necessary maintenance and safety supplies.

Backgrounder: The West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) Scam

The promises of transparent hiring follow years of public outrage and legal battles stemming from the massive WBSSC teacher recruitment scam during the former Trinamool Congress (TMC) tenure.

The Modus Operandi: Initiated primarily around the 2016 State Level Selection Test (SLST) for secondary, higher secondary, and non-teaching positions (Groups C & D), the selection process was plagued by systemic irregularities. Investigative agencies (CBI and ED) uncovered widespread score tampering on Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets, rank jumping (preferring lower-ranked candidates over higher-scoring ones), and out-of-panel appointments of unlisted candidates in exchange for monetary bribes (“cut money”).

High-Profile Arrests: The scandal led to high-profile enforcement raids in July 2022, resulting in the arrest of then-Education Minister Partha Chatterjee after tens of crores in unaccounted cash were seized from his associate’s residences. Subsequent enforcement actions led to the arrest of multiple TMC legislators, WBSSC chairpersons, and education department officials.

Judicial Intervention & Cancelled Appointments: Thousands of qualified job aspirants staged continuous street protests in Kolkata for years demanding justice. Following extensive legal hearings, the Calcutta High Court—and subsequently the Supreme Court—struck down thousands of illegal appointments, nullifying entire recruitment panels due to widespread data tampering and missing original records. The current administration’s overhaul of the SSC roster and interview rules aims to resolve this prolonged legal stalemate.

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