In the decidedly depressing season of exam cancellations, the West Bengal Chief Minister’s announcement that 32,000 teachers will be recruited by next March will be generally welcomed by parents, students and school authorities.

The process, it would be useful to recall, had hit the reefs at least six years ago owing to transport and logistical problems on the day of the test, allotment of seats, and appointment letters to candidates who had not been recommended on the basis of their performance in the written exam.

This was gross injustice, fair and square.

Miss Mamata Banerjee now seems determined to cleanse the system with the seemingly firm assurance that “all recruitment will be based on merit. Those who cleared their written exams will be eligible for recruitment and merit will be the sole criterion”.

This is how a competitive exam must of necessity be conducted. Monday’s announcement appears to be an indirect admission of the fact that the process had been tarnished ~ to the point of disgrace ~ by wheeling and dealing of the political class.

It is a measure of the overwhelming disgrace that Calcutta High Court had to intervene… to the point that the recruitment process was stalled.

The state is now free to go ahead with recruitment. It thus comes about that as many as 24,500 teachers will be appointed this year before Durga Puja and another 7,500 teachers will be appointed by March 2022.

Till not very long ago, the system was plagued by corruption. Candidates, who had qualified in the written papers, had demanded suitable jobs. This has prompted the Chief Minister to advance the assurance that she would look into the persistent imbroglio in the academic sector after the Assembly elections, which she now appears to have done.

Earlier, the recruitment process was tarnished to the extent that ruling party footsoldiers were accommodated in the merit list. Indeed, the teachers to be, so to speak, were quite the most vocal critics of the Trinamul government on the eve of the Assembly elections.

Thus was the appointment of school teachers reduced to a campaign plank. Recruitment for the primary and upper primary levels had been stayed by the High Court in the wake of allegations that the selection process lacked transparency. Discrepancies had also compelled the High Court to quash the recruitment of 15,000 teachers at the upper primary level.

Not wholly unrelated to the critical decision on recruitment of teachers is the announcement that West Bengal had bagged six out of ten positions in skill competition.

As a follow-through, a committee has been formed to provide suggestions on yet more skill-based training and make arrangements for suitable placement. The panel has been asked to furnish its report and recommendations within 15 days.

Education has reached a stage that must of necessity go beyond the four walls of the classroom.