Teachers' scam: Candidate with wrong roll number in answer sheet appointed in Bengal school

IANS  | Dec 08 | Kolkata  : A new dimension of corruption has evolved in the notorious multi- crore teachers' recruitment scam in West Bengal, as one candidate has been identified to have received appointment for the 9th and 10th standards in a state-run school despite writing her roll number wrong in the answer sheet for the teacher's recruitment examination in 2016.

The revelation has come as a shocker since as per rules, the answer-sheet is supposed to get cancelled if the candidate concerned writes his or her roll number wrong even if he or she gives cent per cent correct answers.

The fresh list of 40 illegally recruited candidates published by West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) following an order of the Calcutta High Court's Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay on Monday, has the name of one Prapti Chowdhury (Actual Roll number: 22211675003414) in the 31st position in the fresh list. However, in her optical mark recognition (OMR) sheet, she wrote her roll number as 22211675003114.

Despite this howler in the OMR sheet, Prapti Chowdhury got appointment and as per records of the state school education department, she had been employed with Gayalal High School at Raiganj in North Dinajpur district of West Bengal as a Bengali teacher in for the 9th and 10th standards for little less than the last four years.

However, sources from the state education department said that the last time Prapti Chowdhuri attended the school was on December 5, 2022 the late evening of which WBSSC uploaded the fresh list of 40 illegally recruited teachers. The school authorities too have not received any communication from WBSSC on the next course of action on this count.

The fresh list of 40 illegally recruited candidates published by WBSSC this week was in addition to a previous list of 183 "wrongly recommended" candidates published by the commission on December 2. Along with the fresh list of 40, WBSSC also published scanned copies of their OMR sheets, many of which showed that the candidates concerned did not attempt a single multiple-choice question and have attempted only a couple of questions, despite getting appointed or being recommended for appointments as teachers. One of these 40 scanned OMR sheet copies was that of Prapti Chowdhury, which highlighted the fact of writing her roll number wrong.

"No wonder, Justice Gangopadhyay observed that such manipulations cannot be the handiwork of ghosts and surely some people within the commission were involved in it," said an official of the state education department.