A wave of despair has washed over thousands of teachers in West Bengal following the Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate the appointments of nearly 26,000 teachers and staff in state-run and state-aided schools.
For months, teachers have been meeting at Shahid Minar in Dharmatala every other day to discuss the case. On Thursday, they sat, watching the judgment live, as it plunged their careers into uncertainty.
The apex court upheld the Calcutta High Court’s verdict, labeling the 2016 School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment process as “vitiated and tainted by fraud” and cancelling the appointment of 25,753 teachers.
Amit Ranjan Bhuiyan, a Physical Science teacher at Keorakhali Nakul Sahadeb High School in Medinipur district, is among those grappling with the news.
Having taught since 2019 after appearing for the recruitment in 2016, Bhuiyan, who currently resides in Garia, expressed his utter disappointment.
“I was bright in studies so I thought I would grab a government job. Getting a government job is very tough, it takes a lot of hard work. I am clueless as to what I will do next,” he lamented.
“Suddenly, I am back to square one. After 6 years… I have crossed my age to apply for a new job,” he told The Indian Express.
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Aditi Basu, a mathematics teacher at Dakhineshwar Bharati Bhawan in Barasat, questioned the logic behind the decision.
“If we are not competent for the job, then all those answer sheets that we have checked of class X and XII should also be cancelled. I feel ashamed today that I am an Indian and our judicial system is this weak,” she said.
Basu further questioned the purpose of the years-long investigation if the entire recruitment was ultimately deemed invalid.
“SSC, which is our recruitment board, couldn’t submit the list of tainted and fair candidates. After 4 years of investigation, the SSC agrees with CBI’s list. In that list, our name wasn’t there. The list mentioned 5,000 candidates’ names, now suddenly the recruitment of 26,000 gets cancelled. What was the need for the investigation for all these years?” she asked, “I can see and smell politics behind this, and we are just scapegoats. There is an attempt to make it an issue.”
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Days ago, Pranab Samanta, a Physics teacher, was celebrating the birth of his daughter. Now, he stands under the scorching sun at Shahid Minar, contemplating his future.
“I appeared in 2016, and was appointed in 2018. I have been teaching physics to class 11 and 12 students at South Suburban School in Bhawanipur. A section of people used corrupt ways to get a government job, and in return, all those people who worked hard to grab a government job are left unemployed,” he said.
Rajat Haldar, a physics teacher for classes 9 and 10 at Subhash Nagar High School in South 24 Parganas, expressed his dashed hopes.
“Only about 5.000 applicants were tainted, which is less than 10 percent, but we are the scapegoats. The court said a fresh process will begin, but my question is, won’t the recruitment board, commission and the government be the same? Imagine a government or the apex court in India is not able to guarantee a board which is free from corruption,” Haldar said.
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For some, the impact of losing their job extends beyond financial hardship. A young teacher from a government school in South 24 Parganas spoke of personal repercussions, stating,
“My parents have fixed my marriage. They know I am a government teacher. Now when I am losing my job, friends and relatives are suspicious of the process, whereas I worked really hard to get the job.”