Stating that the teacher’s strength in West Bengal government schools is already “strained’, the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) on Monday moved a petition in the Supreme Court seeking modification of its April 3 order annulling appointments of over 25,000 school staff.
In its plea, the state Board urged the top court to allow teachers “not found to be tainted” to continue their services until the end of the academic year or until the process of fresh appointments is concluded, whichever is earlier.
While upholding a Calcutta High Court order on an alleged school jobs scam case being probed by the CBI, the Supreme Court termed the 2016 School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment process as “vitiated and tainted by fraud”.
The WBBSE, in its appeal, argued that sacking over 25,000 teaching and non-teaching staff would severely affect the functioning of the schools in the state.
“The applicant (WBBSE) has under its supervision 9,487 high schools, of which 6,952 have higher secondary sections (Class XI and XII), catering to over 78.6 lakh students. The applicant Board also oversees 6,350 upper primary schools (Class VI-VIII). Pertinently, in the state, about 88 per cent enrolments are in government /government-aided schools… The teacher strength of 1,51,568 (excluding headmasters]) in the state is already strained, with most schools relying on a single teacher per subject for Classes V to X. Services of 17,206 out of the 1,51,568 teachers, ie 11.35 per cent of the existing teachers are to be terminated pursuant to the judgment, which would have a devastating impact across the schools in the state,” the petition stated.
Meanwhile, SSC chairman Siddhartha Majumdar told PTI that the Commission will move the apex court soon to seek certain clarifications about the order and work as guided by it.
Education Minister Bratya Basu said earlier the Supreme Court was not satisfied with the submission of the SSC and it would seek guidance from the top court on this issue.
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Those who were rendered jobless claimed that the reason behind their plight was the inability of the School Service Commission (SSC), which appointed them, to differentiate between the candidates who secured employment through fraudulent means and those who did not.
