Teaching job aspirants who fail to reach cut-off mark for interview hold protest march in Kolkata

Around 300 teaching job aspirants who allegedly failed to secure the cut-off mark for interview held a protest march in Kolkata.

Around 300 candidates, who wrote the teacher recruitment examination conducted by the SSC but allegedly failed to secure the cut-off mark required for interview even after scoring high marks, on Monday held a protest march in Kolkata.

They marched from Karunamoyee Crossing towards Bikash Bhavan, the education department headquarters in Salt Lake near here, but the police stopped them soon after near Central Park, saying they did not have permission to hold the rally.

They sat where they had been stopped, blocking vehicular traffic, and the police forcefully removed them after around six hours.

The interview process is slated to start on Tuesday.

The School Service Commission held a recruitment examination on September 14 after the Supreme Court invalidated SSC’s 2016 panel in April, annulling the appointment of nearly 26,000 teaching and non-teaching staff in state-run and -aided institutions after finding that the selection process was tainted.

The ‘untainted’ teachers who lost their jobs by the court order, but were not proved to have been involved in the irregularities and fresh candidates were allowed to appear for the examination.

After the SSC published the list of 20,500-odd candidates who were called for the pre-interview verification, it is alleged that several of the fresh examinees did not get the call despite scoring high marks.

“I got 60 out of 60 in the written test and 10 out of 10 for the academic qualification. Still, I was not called for verification. This is a big surprise. Why, even after scoring 70 out of 70, didn’t I get a verification call?” asked Muktar Ahmed Khan of Malda, an English subject candidate.

Several others who participated in the protest march alleged they had secured perfect or near-perfect marks yet were not called for verification.

"Those who lost their jobs after the Supreme Court order are getting extra 10 marks in the new 2025 SSC exams based on their teaching experience, and we are overlooked despite securing full 60 marks in all subjects," said Sudip Raha, a protester.

An SSC official said that the list of candidates who got the call for verification was prepared following the guideline that says 10 marks will be given for teaching experience, while 20 marks are for the interview.

"We demand Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee come to Karunamoyee and hear our pleas. We also demand that the talks be live-streamed," Raha said.

The police deployed a large contingent, while the protesters refused to disperse, saying they would not move until their demands were met.

After talks failed, the police dispersed them and cleared the key road connecting the IT hub of Sector, while a Metro Railway station was also nearby, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Bidhan Nagar, Anish Sarkar told reporters.

While some of the demonstrators were taken into police vans, others were chased away. There was commotion in the Karunamouyee Metro Station as commuters were taken aback due to slogan-shouting protesters.

"We have sympathy for them. But one must follow rules and procedure before holding any such protest," Sarkar said.

He said that as the area before Bikash Bhavan is under a prohibitory zone, protestors were not allowed to proceed further.

The demonstrators sought a three-point charter of demands from the state education department.

They sought withdrawal of the 10 marks awarded to job-lost teachers, which fresh candidates claim “unfairly” tilted the selection process towards them.

Their other demands are making public the OMR sheets of all candidates called for verification to ensure transparency, and increasing the number of vacant posts to one lakh because of the prolonged delay in SSC exams and continuing unemployment.

Education Minister Bratya Basu said the SSC is conducting recruitment tests monitored by the Supreme Court.

"We cannot change the rules like waiving the 10 marks for teachers having requisite experience. These rules had already been stipulated by the WBSSC during the publication of the notification months back," he said.