‘Salary lists’ reach schools, teachers’ siege continues at SSC HQ for 36 hrs
Times of India | 23 April 2025
123 Kolkata: The school education department on Tuesday afternoon sent an order to the district inspectors (DI) stating that teachers appointed from the 2016 recruitment panel can continue their services in school until the completion of the fresh recruitment process by Dec 31.
The order was issued by the commissioner of the school education department immediately after the announcement by chief minister Mamata Banerjee and press conference by the state education minister Bratya Basu. It referred to the Supreme Court orders passed on April 3 and 17, where the top court granted permission for the assistant teachers appointed for classes IX and X and classes XI and XII under the selection process of SLST 2016, who were "not specifically found to be tainted," to continue their services in the school until the completion of the recruitment process by Dec 31, subject to the conditions stipulated in the solemn order.
The order stated that the WBSSC had sent the lists of assistant teachers appointed for classes IX-X and XI-XII who were found to be untainted. An email was sent to the department on April 22 for taking necessary action. Copies of the Supreme Court order were also sent to district inspectors for necessary action.
Sources said SSC had prepared separate lists specifying tainted, those who were not found to be tainted, and other candidates and submitted them to the education department for disbursement of salary.
In the evening, six representatives from protesting teachers met the SSC chairperson Sidhhartha Majumder. After the meeting, they said that among 17,206 teachers, 15,403 were eligible to continue teaching till Dec 2025 as per the Supreme Court order. The rest were found to be tainted. Chinmoy Mandal, a protesting teacher who was in the representative team, said, "We are partially satisfied. We will seek clarification from the education minister on why the mirror images of OMR sheets have not been published. We will also ask why tainted candidates have not been dismissed yet. We will not leave the street protest until our interests are protected."
State education minister Bratya Basu expressed concern over food and medicine delivery to the gheraoed SSC officials being blocked by the protesters. "The SSC officials are working hard to serve their interests, but they have been besieged since Monday evening," Basu said but hastened to add that the government was not inclined to take stringent actions against the agitators and hoped to solve the issue through exchange of dialogues.
However, the protesting teachers made it clear that the protest will continue until their jobs are secured. Sanchita Chanda, a life science teacher from Birbhum, said, "We kept our patience for the last year, but we received nothing concrete yet. How can we believe their words that no tainted teacher would be on the list?"
The protest by non-teaching staff at the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education office is also underway. The staff, who also lost their jobs following the Supreme Court order, did not receive any partial relief like the teachers. They are demanding that their issue be raised before the Supreme Court and have started agitating in front of the WBBSE office. Among the protesters, eight are on a hunger strike.