Today, November 24, thousands of newly qualified SSC (School Service Commission) aspirants in Kolkata took to the streets to protest what they called unlawful mark allotment and protracted recruitment delays.
The demonstrations coincided with the scheduled release of the SLST (State Level Selection Test) results for classes 9 and 10, PTI reports.
In one of two parallel marches, fresh SSC aspirants for the class 11 and 12 teaching posts departed from Sealdah station in north Kolkata. They broke through multiple police barricades and clashed with uniformed officers as they moved towards Esplanade in central Kolkata.
Protesters then held a sit-in at a busy intersection, disrupting traffic, after refusing a police proposal to divert them to Ramleela Maidan.
Their key demand is the abolition of a 10-mark “experience” bonus granted to former teachers whose earlier appointments were cancelled by the courts. The SSC aspirants argue this unfairly disadvantages new candidates, even those who scored full marks in the exam. They also called for the public display of all OMR sheets and for the creation of 100,000 new teaching posts.
Meanwhile, in a separate protest, hundreds of SSC aspirants from the 2016 Upper Primary batch marched from Salt Lake’s Karunamoyee crossing to Bikash Bhavan, the state education department headquarters.
These aspirants say that although they passed interviews almost a decade ago, more than 1,200 among them are still waiting for appointment letters.
They further claim that mandatory counselling — the final step before being appointed — has not taken place, despite a Supreme Court-endorsed deadline of November 20.
