According to initial reports, most of the school teaching staff, dismissed Monday, were part of the election duty. Over 3 lakh government staff, including teachers, were tagged in poll duties, while around 35,000 are kept in the reserve category, said sources.

More than 15,000 dismissed teachers have been trained as presiding officers, who play a crucial role in managing polling stations.

Poll officials are now scrambling to find replacements from their reserve pool, said sources. “The exact number is unclear, who all were assigned poll duties, is yet to be ascertained, but…most of them were engaged in election-related duties,” said an EC official.

The district officials have been asked to find out how many teachers were tasked with the responsibility as presiding officers, sources said. At least 15% of trained teachers are on standby.

HC orders re-test

Clarifying that re-evaluation of OMR sheet for 2016 teacher’s recruitment panel was not possible, the Calcutta High Court Tuesday announced re-examination of the 2016 SLST. It is still, however, not clear if the examination will be conducted in a new way and whether those who had cleared in 2016 and have crossed the age limit could sit for the test.