West Bengal school recruitment scam: ‘Tainted’ candidates have made it to the fresh interview list, allege teachers

Fresh protests broke out in Kolkata on Monday, November 17, 2025, in connection with the recruitment of new teachers in West Bengal government-aided schools. Candidates objected to the fact that many non-teaching candidates receive additional credit for ‘work experience’, whereas this credit is reserved for teaching experience.

Some of the petitioners filed the suit, alleging that the defective candidates made it into the merit list even after the Supreme Court order barred them from appearing for the exams.

On Saturday, November 15, 2025, the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) released a list of over 20,000 candidates for shortlisted candidates for interviews for teaching assistant posts for classes 11th and 12th. The candidates moved the court on Monday, November 17, 2025 and raised questions about how the defective candidates were allowed to fill forms, were issued admit cards and were allowed to take the exams when the high court specifically asked West. The Bengal government will not allow them in the new recruitment process.

Many also alleged that more than one ‘spotless’ teacher did not make it to the interview list and some candidates who scored full marks in the written exam were also left out.

One of the demands put forward by the protesting candidates in their posters is “You must increase the number of empty seats.”

“We have seen the names of many ‘defective’ teachers in the list. I hope they will be removed during verification. Many also got extra 10 marks for ‘work experience’ in other fields, but this was supposed to be reserved only for ‘teaching experience’. We hope these errors will be corrected,” Chinmoy Mondal said. ‘Joggyya Sikkhak Sikkhika Adhikar Mancha’ (Teachers’ Rights Forum) said.

Candidates protested in Salt Lake demanding to go to Bikash Bhawan (Headquarters of the State Education Department) to discuss their grievances, but were stopped by the police.

“Many candidates who have worked for 5-6 years and have not been involved in any fraud have been left out of the merit lists. We have done nothing wrong, so why are we being made scapegoats?” Another protesting teacher Mehboob Mondal said:

However, State Education Minister Bratya Basu asked job seekers to trust the process. “The document verification process for these candidates is scheduled to officially start from November 18, 2025, which is a shining example of the transparency, robustness and determination of our commitment to complete the recruitment process by December,” he further said in the social media post.

Success lists of candidates applying for assistant teaching positions for 9th and 10th grades have not been published yet.

The exams took place on September 7 and 14 and as per the high court order, the recruitment process will be completed by December 31.

There are 15,403 ‘intact’ teachers who are pinning their hopes on the new recruitment process to get their jobs back; that process was canceled following an April 3 Supreme Court ruling that annulled the entire 2016 panel due to irregularities in the hiring process.

In a related development, Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari alleged that Trinamool Congress MLA Jiban Krishna Saha, who was arrested in the school recruitment scam, took bribes from prison to expedite the new recruitment process. He urged the Enforcement Directorate to take immediate action and shared a video which is allegedly of Mr Saha while taking bribes. However, the authenticity of the video has not been verified.