Thousands of determined teacher job aspirants for classes 11-12 launched a defiant march from Sealdah Station in north Kolkata on Monday morning, smashing through successive police barricades and engaging in physical confrontations with security personnel as they pushed toward their intended destination at Y-Channel in Esplanade. The demonstration, coinciding with the scheduled publication of SLST results for classes 9-10, highlighted explosive anger over what protesters labelled an illegal and discriminatory marking system that continues to haunt West Bengal’s school recruitment process.

Tensions escalated rapidly when police, citing lack of permission for the original route, attempted to reroute the march to Ramleela Maidan on CIT Road, a proposal the protesters categorically rejected. Undeterred, the agitated crowd forced its way into central Kolkata, eventually occupying the crucial Esplanade crossing for a prolonged sit-in that brought vehicular movement to a complete standstill across one of the city’s most vital arteries for several hours.

At the heart of the protest lies fierce opposition to the allocation of 10 additional “experience” marks to teachers whose earlier appointments were cancelled by courts in the multi-crore school jobs scam. Demonstrators argued that this provision blatantly disadvantages fresh candidates who secured perfect scores through merit alone, with many recounting years of financial hardship spent on private tuition and examination fees only to be edged out unfairly. They demanded immediate scrapping of the extra marks, full public disclosure of all OMR answer sheets, and creation of one lakh additional teaching posts to accommodate genuine merit.

Also Read: Kerala Teacher Sentenced To Life For Raping 10-Year-Old Student In Kannur School

Simultaneously, hundreds of candidates from the long-pending 2016 Upper Primary recruitment batch marched from Karunamoyee in Salt Lake to Bikash Bhavan, the state education department headquarters, where they staged a separate sit-in near Central Park. Despite results being declared nearly a decade ago and a Supreme Court order explicitly directing the appointment of 14,052 candidates, they alleged that 1,241 fully qualified individuals remain in limbo even after completing interviews and all formalities, with authorities repeatedly failing to conduct final counselling sessions before the court-mandated November 20 deadline.

The twin agitations laid bare the deepening crisis of confidence in West Bengal’s education recruitment framework, with aspirants accusing the administration of deliberate delay, contempt of Supreme Court directives, and systemic protection of irregularities. As the School Service Commission prepared to release fresh results amid this charged atmosphere, the protests served as a stark reminder of unresolved grievances that continue to fuel unrest across the state’s education sector.

Also Read: Earthquake or SIR Tremors? BJP Targets Mamata as Earthquake Trembles Kolkata