Prateek Tanmay
3 min readRanchiJul 28, 2026 06:06 PM IST
A fresh controversy has erupted over the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission’s (JSSC) latest assistant teacher recruitment after the vacancy notification revealed zero seats for OBC candidates in the primary teacher category, with their overall share in the recruitment only around 5%, prompting OBC organisations to warn of statewide protests.
The category-wise vacancies in the notification show that the 1,909 vacancies for primary teachers (classes 1 to 5) have been distributed among the Unreserved (UR), Scheduled Tribe (ST), Scheduled Caste (SC) and Economically Weaker Section (EWS) categories, with no seats earmarked for BC-I and BC-II, which together constitute the OBC reservation categories in Jharkhand.
The notification for the graduate-trained social science teacher category also has no vacancies for BC-I and BC-II candidates, while OBC representation has been provided only in the language, science and mathematics teacher categories.
Overall, the category-wise break-up shows that the Unreserved category accounts for around 44% of the vacancies, followed by 28% for Scheduled Tribes (ST), 14% for Scheduled Castes (SC) and nearly 9% for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS). In comparison, BC-I and BC-II together account for only around 5% of the vacancies.
The notification does not explain the basis on which the category-wise roster was prepared or why BC-I and BC-II candidates have not been allotted any seats in the primary teacher and social science teacher categories.
OBC group threatens protest
Rajesh Kumar Gupta, state president of the Rashtriya OBC Morcha, said the organisation has submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Hemant Soren seeking immediate amendments to the recruitment notification. In the memorandum, the organisation has claimed that OBCs constitute around 52% of Jharkhand’s population and that the notification fails to provide the community its 14% reservation.
Gupta also objected to clause 19(7) of the notification, which states that candidates who qualified the Jharkhand Teacher Eligibility Test (JTET) or any other Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) under the reserved category would be considered only against reserved-category vacancies. “JTET is merely an eligibility examination. If an OBC candidate secures marks high enough on merit, he or she should be eligible for an unreserved seat. This provision effectively blocks that and is contrary to the norms of the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE),” Gupta said.
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He added that the organisation has demanded a deletion of the clause, revision of the vacancy distribution and issuance of a fresh notification. Failing that, he said, the Morcha would launch protests, including demonstrations and human chains.
When contacted, JSSC Secretary Sudhir Gupta said the issue did not fall within the commission’s purview. “It is not related to JSSC. The concerned department should be questioned,” he said.
Rajesh Kumar Gupta, however, asked how the commission could distance itself from the issue when it had issued the recruitment notification. “If the notification has been issued by the JSSC, how can the commission wash its hands of the matter? Candidates are applying through the JSSC, so it also has a responsibility to answer questions on the recruitment. Passing the responsibility entirely to another department is not justified… This is a way to abolish reservation for the OBCs,” he alleged.
Applications for the vacancies are scheduled to be accepted from August 5 to August 31, while the written examination will be held at a later date to be announced by the JSSC.
