Teachers' scam: WBSSC to soon terminate 800 secondary teachers from service

The West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) will soon terminate 800 illegally-appointed teachers at the secondary level in different state-run schools from service, the commission informed the Calcutta High Court on Thursday.

It is learnt that the process will start after WBSSC issues an official notification on this count next week, in which the names of these 800 teachers will be published.

Sources in the state education department said that these 800 teachers will be those whose numbers in the optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets varied from those in the central server of the commission. In the process of investigation, it was found that several candidates secured marks as high as 53 even after submitting blank OMR sheets or answering just a couple of questions.

Confirming the decision, WBSSC Chairman Siddhartha Majumdar said that the process will be carried out under Rule 17 of the West Bengal School Service Commission Act, which deals with cancellation or withdrawal of recommendations for appointment.

It is learnt that initially the appointments of around 950 secondary teachers were under scanner. All of them were given a chance to review the applications at the court on this count. After proper review of the recruitment details and applications from all of them, the number came down to around 800.

To recall, on this matter of varying marks in OMR list and central server, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the Calcutta High Court had observed that from the nature of forgery, it became evident that it was the handiwork of people within the commission.