Calcutta, Nov. 6: The Bengal government today dismissed human resource development minister Kapil Sibal’s directive that the state scrap the process of appointing primary school teachers ignoring central regulations that are applicable across the country.

“The state government has its own teacher recruitment procedures. We have the freedom to appoint teachers for state-aided schools on our own. We cannot take Sibal’s statement into consideration,” state school education minister Partha De told a news conference.

The state government had recently issued newspaper advertisements inviting applications for the post of primary school teachers to fill up 56,000 vacancies in 59,000 schools.

The advertisement had set only one minimum condition for a candidate to apply: he/she must have passed the Madhyamik (Class X) examinations.

About 40 lakh candidates applied and the recruitment tests are slated for December.

Sibal yesterday asked the state government to scrap the advertisement and apply the rules laid down by the National Council for Teacher Education — the country’s apex body regulating teacher education — for the appointment of primary school teachers.

The council’s rules lay down two things: first, a candidate for a primary teacher’s post has to clear the Class XII examination with a minimum of 50 per cent marks; second, the candidate also has to complete a two-year diploma from a primary teachers’ training institute.

But De insisted today: “The question of stopping the recruitment process at this stage does not arise considering the fate of such a huge number of applicants. We have not broken any rule for appointing primary teachers.”

But legal experts said that if challenged in court, the state’s views would not hold water.

“Education is on the concurrent list and a central law will always prevail,” said advocate Arunava Ghosh.

“The NCTE Act, which is a central one, is binding on the state government.”

According to the “formula” worked out by De, the state can get around the national council’s rules by giving candidates selected for the job a time frame, “say five years”, to fulfil the all-India criteria —clearing the Class XII examination with 50 per cent and obtaining a teachers’ training certificate.

The state government had earlier approved one-year diploma courses for aspiring teachers, but Calcutta High Court declared them illegal.

De was silent on the fate of teachers who failed to meet the national council’s criteria within the stipulated time or if the Centre refused to accept it.

He welcomed Sibal’s proposal to use a combination of bridge courses and open schooling to legalise the “invalid” diplomas so far approved by the state government.

“After this round of appointment, we are ready to abide by the NCTE rules in the future,” De said.

Over 120 primary teacher training institutes in the state have been declared illegal by the court for not abiding by the council’s rules but they now say they are ready to upgrade their infrastructure and increase their course duration from one-year to two-year ones.