Kolkata: As many as 2,29,497 candidates appeared on Sunday for the School Service Commission (SSC) examination to recruit assistant teachers for classes 11 and 12 in West Bengal government-aided schools, officials said.

Education Minister Bratya Basu said this accounted for around 93 per cent of the 2.46 lakh registered candidates. The School Level Selection Test (SLST), being held after nine years, was conducted across 478 centres, all housed in educational institutions.

Basu said 13,517 candidates were from outside West Bengal, the majority from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. On September 7, the first phase of the SLST for recruiting teachers in classes 9 and 10 saw 91 per cent turnout among 3.19 lakh applicants at 636 centres. Of them, 31,362 were from outside the state.

"I don't want to make political comments, but these figures show how much the double-engine governments in BJP-ruled states have succeeded or failed in tackling unemployment and creating job opportunities for educated youth there," Basu said.

The fresh recruitment drive follows the termination of around 26,000 teachers and non-teaching staff after the Supreme Court scrapped the 2016 recruitment process as “tainted and vitiated.”

Thanking the WBSSC for ensuring transparency, Basu said measures such as OMR sheets and retention of candidate copies had been adopted. "Evaluation of papers and interviews will follow as per schedule. I urge the opposition to consider the hopes and aspirations of the candidates. This process is fair, transparent and protects the interests of deserving aspirants," he said.

Chinmoy Mondal, a candidate and member of the Deserving Teachers Rights Forum, said, "We had qualified in 2016 but lost our jobs due to corruption. Today, my exam went well. I hope I am not a victim of circumstances again for the fault of the commission."