The West Bengal School Service Commission has published a revised interview list for recruitment to Classes XI-XII teaching posts after applying the state’s new OBC reservation policy, cancelling the earlier merit list, waiting list and post-interview counselling process.
The Commission issued a notification on Monday night and made the new list available on its website. The change follows a reduction in the OBC reservation share from 17% to 7%, which altered the interview cut-off for the recruitment process.
The revised list removes several OBC candidates who appeared in the earlier interview list and adds a number of candidates from the general category. According to calculations cited by job aspirants and reported by Anandabazar, 2,780 candidates have been removed from the previous list while 2,784 have been added. The largest number of names were reportedly removed in Biological Science, Political Science and Education.
The Commission has said that the earlier merit list and waiting list stand cancelled under the new OBC reservation rules. The counselling process conducted after the interviews has also been cancelled, and several recommendation letters issued earlier are no longer valid under the revised arrangement.
Candidates who appeared in the previous list and have also been included in the new list will not have to attend another interview, according to the Commission. However, candidates newly added to the revised list will be informed later about the schedule for document verification and interviews.
The changes have added another layer of uncertainty to a recruitment process that has already involved multiple stages of evaluation. Candidates who were included under the earlier reservation structure now face the possibility of losing interview or appointment-related opportunities, while those added to the new list must wait for further instructions before their eligibility is processed.
The issue is also expected to affect OBC candidates who appeared for the School Service Commission examination for the first time in 2025. The report cited concerns among eligible teacher candidates that some applicants may be excluded after the reservation revision, even where the recruitment process had already advanced substantially under the earlier 17% framework.
Rupa Karmakar of the Jogya Shikshak-Shikshika Adhikar Mancha said the organisation had received information that several eligible teachers were missing from the new list after the OBC quota was reduced. She described the revision as another setback for eligible candidates and said the earlier recruitment process had reached nearly 80% completion under the 17% reservation arrangement before being cancelled.
The immediate next steps are document verification and interview scheduling for candidates newly included in the revised list. The Commission has said those dates will be announced separately.
