Several candidates recommended by the school service commission (SSC) for higher secondary teaching posts have not received their appointment letters from the state secondary education board within the stipulated 90 days.
Recommendation letters issued by the SSC in mid-February, after counselling was completed, had stated that the recommendations would remain valid for 90 days. "But we are yet to receive appointment letters from the board, which currently has neither a president nor a secretary. They were asked to resign days after the new government came to power," said one candidate awaiting his appointment letter.
The SSC chairperson has also resigned.
The candidates are worried about their future because the SSC had recommended them for Classes XI and XII teaching posts in government-aided schools under reservation norms that included a 17% OBC quota.
The SSC has now sought legal opinion on whether the BJP government's decision to reduce the quota from 17% to 7% will apply to the ongoing teacher recruitment process and, if so, whether it will have retrospective effect.
The Bengal government issued a gazette notification on May 19 on the implementation of the new reservation policy.
"We do not know whether the recruitment process will be revisited under the new reservation policy or whether our appointments have been put on hold because of this," said Kalipada Mandal, who was recommended for an accountancy teacher's post on February 24.
The 90-day deadline for his appointment letter expired on May 24.
"The selection test was held after a gap of nine years. I was hopeful of finally getting a teaching job," Mandal said.
The 90-day validity period for another candidate, Biswajit Bid, who was recommended for a Santhali teaching post, also expired on May 24.
Sources in the SSC said a decision on the fate of the recommended candidates was likely only after the appointment of a new full-term chairman and a new board president.
"We are also awaiting the appointment of the new education minister for further directions," an SSC official said.
The erstwhile Mamata Banerjee government had resumed the recruitment process after nearly a decade following the termination of 17,209 teachers in April 2025.
The Supreme Court had scrapped the appointments, saying the 2016 recruitment process had been "vitiated".
The SSC conducted fresh tests in September 2025 to fill the vacancies created by the terminations. Counselling for higher secondary appointments began in January for 12,514 posts.
The SSC also has to recruit 25,314 secondary-level teachers.
On December 18, the Supreme Court granted the SSC additional time and directed that the appointment process be completed by August 31, 2026, following an appeal by the commission.
Sources in the commission said the SSC had the authority to extend the validity of the recommendations by another two months.
Teaching aspirant Mandal said the candidates were worried because the SSC had not initiated any move to extend the validity period.
Rakesh Alam, who had been called for document verification ahead of interviews for secondary-level recruitment, said he was uncertain whether the process could be completed before the Supreme Court's August 31 deadline.