WBSSC Teacher Recruitment Exam Wraps Up Smoothly in West Bengal
The second round of the State Level Selection Test (SLST) for teacher jobs in West Bengal went off without a hitch on Sunday. Officials from the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) confirmed that everything ran smoothly, bringing relief to thousands of aspiring teachers.
This exam targeted vacancies for Classes 11 and 12 in higher secondary schools. It kicked off at noon and wrapped up by 1:30 p.m., with specially-abled candidates getting an extra 30 minutes to finish. Around 2.46 lakh candidates showed up to compete for 12,514 teaching posts. The whole SLST process aims to fill 35,726 teacher vacancies across Classes 9 to 12, including 23,212 spots for Classes 9 and 10. In total, over 5.65 lakh people applied for these rounds of WBSSC teacher recruitment.
West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu praised the smooth conduct after the exam. He highlighted new steps the WBSSC took this year to ensure transparency in the teacher recruitment exam. "The process was fair and glitch-free," Basu told reporters, adding that model answer sheets will go live on the WBSSC website by September 20. These sheets will stay online for two years, so candidates can check them easily.
If you spot any issues with the model answers, just raise objections on the WBSSC site within five days. Results for this SLST round will drop after Durga Puja, revealing who moves on to interviews. The interview phase starts in November, and the entire teacher recruitment drive should finish by December 31.
The first round of the SLST last Sunday (September 7) also sailed through without problems, drawing over 3.19 lakh candidates. Basu shared an interesting stat: Out-of-state applicants numbered 31,362 for the first round and 13,517 for this one, mostly from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. This shows how the WBSSC teacher recruitment is attracting talent from across India.
These fresh exams come amid a major teacher recruitment scam that shook West Bengal politics. Back in 2016, the last time WBSSC held such tests, corruption ran rampant. Central agencies arrested big names like former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, Trinamool MLA Jiban Krishna Saha, and several education department officials. They allegedly took bribes and tampered with OMR sheets to hand jobs to unqualified candidates.
The Supreme Court stepped in on April 3, scrapping appointments of about 26,000 teachers and staff from that tainted 2016 process. It ordered a clean slate—no repeat offenders allowed in the new SLST. On August 30, WBSSC released a list of 1,806 scam-linked candidates who had snagged jobs unfairly, barring them from this round.
Even amid the controversy, some familiar faces took the exam. Suman Biswas, a key leader in recent protests by jobless qualified teachers, sat for the test in Hooghly district. He leads a forum demanding the government rehire deserving candidates who lost jobs due to the scam. "We’re victims of the system," Biswas said after writing the exam at Hooghly Women’s College. "We cleared it before but now have to start over because of that massive corruption."
Babita Sarkar, who sparked the whole expose by filing the first petition in Calcutta High Court, also appeared on Sunday. She had accused the daughter of a former minister, Ankita Adhikary, of getting a job through backdoor means. In 2022, the court axed Ankita’s appointment and made her return her salary—about Rs 15 lakh. Babita briefly got that spot but lost it due to a marking error, only for it to go to another candidate who also got sacked later by the Supreme Court.
Talking to the media, Sarkar voiced doubts about fairness. "After the last scam, can we trust WBSSC’s impartiality? The corrupt ones faced no real punishment, and now they’re running the show again." Her story highlights the human cost of the West Bengal teacher recruitment scam.
As West Bengal pushes for cleaner hiring, these SLST exams mark a fresh chapter. With results on the horizon, candidates wait eagerly for their shot at stable teaching jobs in state schools. Stay tuned for updates on WBSSC results and the next steps in this teacher recruitment drive.
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