With thousands of appointments declared void in West Bengal and the State Government under fire, the scandal underscores the urgent need for transparency and accountability in public sector recruitment, especially in education
Last week, the Supreme Court concurred with the decision of Calcutta High Court and cancelled the 2016 recruitment of over 25,700 teachers and non-teaching staff recruited in 2016 for the schools of the West Bengal government.
A year earlier, on 22nd April 2024, Calcutta High Court had cancelled the selection process that was marred by manipulation and fraud on a large scale, and attempted cover-up by a state agency, resulting in a loss of credibility and legitimacy and thereby denting the entire process. The Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar observed, “The entire selection process has been vitiated and tainted beyond resolution,” and also referred to the candidates’ OMR (answer) sheets for illegal rank jumping, selection of those who did not qualify, and also those who submitted blank answer sheets.
CBI, on the direction of Calcutta High Court in 2022, had investigated the entire matter of teachers’ recruitment in West Bengal and found that 6,515 recruited persons out of total recruitment of 25,753 were tainted. However, the investigating agency could not conclusively conclude that all the remaining were untainted because OMR sheets were not found maintained and kept in PDF/digital form by the school service commission.
The Supreme Court bench also added that the tainted candidates should be required to refund any salaries/payments received as the appointments were the result of fraud, which amounts to cheating. For the remaining candidates, the bench clarified that they lost the jobs, as the entire selection process has been cancelled, but they are not required to refund salaries and other reimbursements received.
The Supreme Court provided further relief to those who were not found on the list of tainted candidates and were in a job in the government department/autonomous body before the 2016 recruitment. These candidates can apply back to their respective organisations, where their jobs will have to be restored, protecting their pay and seniority.
Even if there were no vacancies, the concerned organisation would create supernumerary posts to accommodate the candidates. The court on humanitarian grounds allowed differently abled candidates to continue in the job and draw salaries, even though the entire process of selection was cancelled.
The bribe for job controversy had led to the 2022 arrest of former state’s education Minister Partha Chatterjee, who was charged by ED for money laundering. Authorities had seized more than 49 crore rupees in cash from the flats of his aide and Chatterjee has been in jail for years. West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, refused to accept the court’s verdict and vowed to take it up for review. She accused BJP and CPM of trying to destabilise Bengal’s education system and questioned why other recruitment scandals, such as Madhya Pradesh’s Vyapam scam, had not faced similar legal consequences. She met the teachers terminated by the Supreme Court a few days ago at Netaji Indoor Stadium, Kolkata, and promised them to provide jobs in other departments, in case the state fails to find a favourable decision in review.
Her Education Minister Bratya Basu constituted a liaison committee with representatives of affected school staff, who would deal with the state’s legal team comprising Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Kapil Sibal, Rakesh Dwivedi, Kalyan Banerjee, and Prashant Bhushan to safeguard the rights of the eligible teachers.
First and foremost, the state should have a check and balance system so that the irregularities found in recruitment are not carried forward. The recruitment by the School Service Commission, where fraud has occurred, has been in progress from 2016 to 2021.
Even after the scam came to light in 2021, it was incumbent on the state to make alternative arrangements and take up a transparent and impartial process to recruit a new set of teaching staff. There is no dearth of talent in the state. There are sincere and meritorious candidates, who do not have any Godfather to promote their candidature. They are generally from a humble background and will not have sufficient money to pay the bribe. Only a fair and impartial examination system for recruitment can provide them with an opportunity.
Nearly half a century ago, government schools in West Bengal and many other states provided a platform for students from humble backgrounds to rise in life. The teachers those days used to be extraordinary. Once they explained the topic in the class, one only needed to revise at home and there was never any need for tuition in extra hours. Teachers were also available to students to clear any doubt during breaks and when they had free periods. Further, before taking up a fresh topic in the class, they were in the habit of reviewing how students had understood the previous chapter and took pleasure in explaining the concepts again, where the understanding was lagging. Besides, some brighter students took it upon themselves to help those who lagged. There was no culture of tuition even in subjects like Science and Mathematics. My several friends cracked Indian Institute of Technology’s entrance examination for admission in Engineering trades for graduation.They were attentive in classes, and did not undergo any IIT coaching.
These days, no one gets admission even in ordinary Engineering and Medical colleges without two years of rigorous coaching. Government schools and colleges often imparted superior training to students, as compared to private institutions. In my case, I did not get admission to a Government intermediate college, as my 10th standard marks were below the cutoff. Nevertheless, I got wonderful teachers of Physics and Mathematics in a private institution named DB Inter College Gorakhpur, who nicely trained me to utilise my full potential in learning the subjects. I am especially thankful to my Mathematics Teacher Sri Sambhoo Saran Dubey, whose meticulous training to approach any problem in the subject led to immense confidence building in me, which helped to crack UPSC’s Indian Forest Service Examination in 1975. Dubey sir spent time on weak students too. He conducted extra classes on holidays without any additional emoluments.
The trends in the education system differ these days; Science, Engineering and Mathematics students do not opt for the subjects they graduated from in UPSC’s competitive examinations. Engineering graduates from even IIT opt for Geology and Forestry in Indian Forest Service exams and Anthropology/Geography in Civil Services.
The course materials in altogether new subjects as well as the coaching are available in all major cities of the country helping them to crack the exams. Why these days students lack confidence in their core Science subjects? It adversely reflects on the system. They do not have a solid foundation in the subject. Imagine the degeneration in the system visible to present-day senior citizens over five decades.
What worse can we expect when there is corruption in the recruitment of the teaching staff? Such teachers’ heads hang in shame and cannot face students and parents when questioned regarding the payment of bribes for their appointments.
The most striking part is the degradation of standards in government schools over this period. The corruption and inefficiency in the governments is to fully account for such downfall.
Society has also changed and there has been a mushrooming of private institutions, which is unaffordable for students from humble backgrounds.
Let the governments focus on corruption-free administration in the education system. When the wrongdoing was pointed out in selection of West Bengal teachers in 2021-22, the state should have immediately gone for fresh recruitments and saved four years for students.
(The writer is Retired Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Karnataka. Views are personal)
