WB Assembly nod to Bill removing limits on teachers' selection
The amendment to the bill was brought because an ordinance was issued earlier when the House was not in session.
Kolkata: The Assembly on Wednesday passed the West Bengal School Service Commission (Amendment) Bill, which removes regional disparities in selection of teachers and non-teaching staff.
State education minister Partha Chatterjee said following the regional level selection test as per existing provision of the West Bengal School Service Commission Act 1997, it was not possible to fill up all vacancies.
The amendment removes regional restriction for filling up of vacancies for the post of teachers and non-teaching staff of different regions by way of introduction of a State Level Selection Test.
This means that candidates can now apply for the teachers’ and the non-teaching staff’s posts and their recruitment anywhere in the state.
The amendment to the bill was brought because an ordinance was issued earlier when the House was not in session. It replaced the West Bengal School Service Commission (Amendment) Ordinance, 2016.
Earlier, the West Bengal School Service Commission had five regions under its jurisdiction: northern, southern, eastern, western and south eastern.
The candidates were then allowed to apply for teachers’ posts in their respective regions. Still many posts remained vacant which created a challenge for the government.
The bill spoke about the creation of a central commission which will conduct the State Level Selection Test and also monitor the regional commissions’ functions.
According to the bill’s statement of objects and reasons, amendment of section 7 and section 16 of the Act was necessary to ‘remove regional restriction for filling up of vacancies for the posts of teachers and non-teaching staff of different regions by way of introducing the State Level Selection Test for the selection of teachers and non-teaching staff to save schools from shortage of qualified teachers and non-teaching staff.’
During the discussion on the bill, Congress MLA Nepal Mahato placed an amendment seeking time till February 28 next year for creating an opinion. Congress MLA Asit Mitra supported him.
Mr Chatterjee, however, said that the bill would make the recruitment process transparent and would focus on merit based on which only one list of the successful candidates would be published.