Apex court’s SSC verdict leaves 25,753-1 teachers with a future full of questions
Times of India | 4 April 2025
1234 Kolkata: Many school teachers who lost their jobs following the Supreme Court verdict on Thursday are at a loss over how to meet financial commitments like home and personal loans that they accrued since securing the jobs almost nine years ago. Others are also at their wit's end on how they will prepare for an exam they appeared in over a decade ago.
The apex court scrapped the recruitment of 25,752 teachers and non-teaching staff by the 2016 School Service Commission.
Rupa Banerjee, who teaches physical science at a govt-aided school in Bhangar, is devastated at losing her job overnight for no fault of hers. "My family is dependent on me. I have a loan, and my father is a heart patient. I have to bear huge medical expenses. I do not know how I will tackle these expenses in the coming days. There is so much uncertainty that my emotions have become numb," said Banerjee.
Saikat Ghosh, a history teacher at a South 24 Parganas school, is also the sole earner in his family with a three-year-old daughter, wife, aged parents, uncle and aunt. "We are doomed for life," he said. Ghosh added, "I got this job on my merit and joined the school as a teacher on Feb 28, 2019. Since then, I travelled all the way from my Chandernagore home to South 24 Parganas daily. After nine years of service, I lost my job not for my fault but because of corruption and irregularities. Moreover, now, we are being told to appear for a job exam again. Is it fair? to ask someone to appear for a job exam after 11 years?"
Deepa Mondal, a physical science teacher at a South 24 Parganas school, said: "I wanted to become a teacher because the profession has respect. But I was wrong in aspiring to be a teacher," said Mondal. She felt that circumstances were different almost a decade ago when they appeared for the exam in 2014. "We were mentally prepared for the exam in 2014. I was not married. I did not have kids. Now I have a family to support, raise two children, and a home loan to pay. Under such circumstances, I do not know how is it possible to appear in another exam."
Another teacher, Suman Sikdar, who teaches life science at a school in Joynagar, said, "When the SC is alive to the fact that there are ‘tainted' and ‘untainted' candidates, then why are all being punished?" Sikdar has a kid and aged father at home. His wife is a private sector employee. "Since travelling from Barrackpore to my school was hectic and time-taking, I bought a flat in Sonarpur after the pandemic. But all my dreams are shattered as I do not know how to pay next month's home loan EMI and cater to the needs of my aged father and my kid," added Sikdar.
For Salma Khatun, a physical science teacher at a Nadia school, it is a financial blow as well as social damage to her reputation. Khatun said, "Losing the job will not only cause financial problems but it will be socially damaging for us. In spite of fulfilling criteria, passing the exam on my merit, our lives have been filled with questions, which have no answers. Everyone will look at us with suspicion." Khatun's husband has a small business, and a chunk of her salary goes for paying a home loan EMI.