The president of the ad-hoc committee that has been tasked with running the West Bengal Board of Primary Education said on Thursday that the board was committed to running the teacher recruitment process “in a transparent manner”.
The education department had on Tuesday appointed Goutam Paul, a pro vice-chancellor of Kalyani University, as president of the committee.
The move came two months after Calcutta High Court removed Manik Bhattacharya from the post of president following charges of irregularities in the appointment of teachers.
“I am committed to acting in a transparent manner. Henceforth, there won’t be any scope of non-transparency in what we do…. From holding the TET (teachers’ eligibility test) to coming up with a merit list and issuance of appointment letters, I am giving you my word that everything will be done in a transparent manner,” Paul told a news conference held at the office of the primary education board in Salt Lake.
“Actions of the board must not bring disrepute to the (education) department,” he said.
The committee, which will be in existence for a year, has 11 persons from the field of education as members.
At the press conference, Paul was seated next to board secretary Ratna Chakraborty Bagchi, who had in June asked the district primary school councils to submit records about the candidates who were recruited as teachers so they could be submitted to the CBI.
Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had on June 14 asked the CBI to file an FIR and initiate an investigation into the alleged illegal recruitment of teachers by the board based on the TET in 2014.
The aspiring primary teachers who had written the teachers’ eligibility test in 2015 and 2021 met education minister Bratya Basu at Bikash Bhavan on August 17, demanding that they be recruited in a fair way.
Paul said he would meet the aspirants to listen to their grievances and wondered why the board did not have a grievance cell.
“I am going to create a grievance cell. I will speak to the aspirants to take note of their grievances. If anyone had to suffer for our mistakes, I will try to rectify that,” said Paul.
Asked about the start of the recruitment process that is pending, Paul said they would act in accordance with the law.
