The exam, which began at noon, was held amidst tight security across 636 centres statewide.
WBSSC chairman Siddhartha Majumdar said in a statement, “Around 91 percent of the 3.19 lakh candidates wrote the papers. I thank the entire state administration for its fullest support to enable us to conduct the exams in a smooth manner.”
The exam was held for recruitment to assistant teacher posts for classes 9 and 10. Notably, several candidates from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh also participated. Majumdar said the number of total outstation candidates was more than 31,000.
Umesh Yadav, a candidate from Uttar Pradesh, said he had secured a master’s in science and was trying his luck in West Bengal.
A three-tier security system was in place at exam centres, including naka checking 100 metres from the venue, and multiple checks at the gates and on the premises. Considering the security measures, candidates were asked to turn up at the centres from 10 am onwards, two hours before the start of the exam.
Barcode scanners were used to check admit cards at entrances, and only pens—also made available at centres—were permitted inside. No electronic devices or mobile phones were allowed, and even venue supervisors and SSC officials were barred from carrying phones into exam halls.
The WBSSC has embedded certain unique identification security features on each question paper to monitor candidates resorting to unfair means.
Coming out of the examination hall at Basanti Devi College centre here, Satabdi Kanjilal said, “The questions were easy, and we did not face difficulties in solving.”
Leader of Deserving Jobless Teachers Rights Forum, Subrata Biswas, who also sat for the exams during the day, said, “It was an embarrassing moment for us, the untainted teachers, who took the exam again with our students instead of acting as invigilators. The WBSSC and state government are responsible for the situation.”
The exam is being conducted after around 26,000 school teachers and non-teaching staffers lost their jobs as per the direction of the Supreme Court, which stated that their recruitment process held in 2016 was “tainted and vitiated.”
Another 2.46 lakh candidates will sit for the recruitment test of assistant teachers of classes 11 and 12 at 478 centres on September 14, the WBSSC chairman said.
The apex court had directed the WBSSC to ensure that teachers who were identified as having got their jobs through unscrupulous means are not allowed to appear in this recruitment process. Subsequently, the names of 1,806 such ‘tainted’ teachers were announced by the WBSSC.
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