West Bengal SSC likely to come out with reworked merit list for school teacher recruitment

Kolkata: The West Bengal Central School Service Commission (SSC) is likely to soon come out with a reworked merit list for recruitment to higher secondary teaching posts, following the state's revision of the OBC reservation formula, a senior official said on Wednesday.

The exercise covers 12,445 vacancies and follows the government's decision to bring down the OBC quota applicable to the recruitment process from 17 per cent to 7 per cent, he said.

The commission is revisiting the merit list published on January 21, which had been prepared under the reservation structure introduced by the previous TMC government.


According to commission sources, the previous panel had recommended 3,586 candidates for appointment. The revised assessment may lead to changes in the candidature and ranking of some aspirants who figured in the previous list.

Counselling for candidates who had already completed their interviews was suspended on August 13 and the process is expected to restart after the fresh merit list is issued.

The commission has been racing against a deadline set in connection with the recruitment process. The Supreme Court has asked it to complete the exercise by May 31, 2027, and the SSC wants to accelerate the remaining stages after the merit list is recast, the SSC official said.

As part of the revision, candidates were asked last month to update their OBC sub-category information on the commission's portal.

The commission is expected to subsequently undertake a similar exercise for recruitment to secondary school teaching jobs, for which 23,209 vacancies are available.

Candidates who cleared the selection tests held in September last year will be considered for interviews under the revised reservation structure.

An interview shortlist for the secondary-level recruitment is likely to be released by the third week of September, the official said.

The recruitment process had originally been launched under a 17 per cent OBC reservation provision. A notification issued by the then state government on June 10, 2025, had earmarked 10 per cent for OBC-A and 7 per cent for OBC-B, covering 140 backward classes, he said.

Applications for nearly 35,000 secondary and higher secondary teaching vacancies opened on June 16, 2025, with the 17 per cent quota forming part of the recruitment framework.

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced in May this year that the OBC reservation would be revised to a certain percentage for 66 communities and the change in the reservation structure has prompted the commission to revisit the recruitment panels and redraw the subsequent interview and counselling schedule, the official added.