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As many as 32,000 teachers would be recruited for primary and upper primary levels in West Bengal by March 2022, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced.

The appointment process to fill up at least 14,000 vacancies in the upper primary level (class 5 to class 8) and 10,500 in the primary level (class 1 to class 4) will be completed before October this year.

Around 7,500 more posts for primary teachers will be filled up by March 2022, Mamata Banerjee said.

Scale of pay

After the implementation of the 6th Pay Commission, the basic pay for a primary teacher stands at Rs 28,900. The HRA is 12% of the basic or Rs 3,468 while the DA is 5% of the basic and stands at Rs 867.

The starting salary therefore works out to around Rs 33,735. Total deductions would amount to PF (Rs 1,734) and profession tax (Rs 150).

However, Bhagirath Ghosh, joint convenor of Para Teacher Unity Forum, said: “The current gross emoluments for upper primary teachers is around Rs 30,000 per month while for primary the figure is around Rs 24,200.”

Only merit, no lobby

The Chief Minister reiterated that nothing except merit would be taken into consideration while evakuating candidates.

“Those who have passed the examinations are eligible for the jobs. The appointments were stuck because of multiple court cases. No lobbying will be entertained,” said Mamata.

Around five lakh candidates had appeared for the tests.

Process stuck in court

In February 2021, Calcutta High Court had ordered an interim stay on the recruitment process for primary teachers while hearing petitions filed by job aspirants who alleged discrepancies after their names did not feature on the merit list issued by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education.

The High Court later directed the West Bengal Central School Service Commission (WBCSSC) to ensure that deserving candidates are not left out and the recruitment process should be conduct with full transparency.

The court, which initially asked the commission to publish the interview list by May 10, had allowed them some time in view of the ongoing pandemic.

The Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) for recruitment of teachers in upper primary schools was held in August 2015 and the results were declared in September 2016. The results of the interview were out in August 2019.

However, the recruitment of 7,500 primary teachers is outside the number that was held up in litigations.