Ad-hoc teachers agitate in Darjeeling. (Suman Tamang)

Darjeeling, May 14: Ad-hoc teachers serving in hill schools are preparing to fight the DGHC’s initiative to appoint 44 people who qualified through the School Service Commission (SSC) examination in 2000.

Around 700 ad-hoc teachers, recruited by the DGHC when it was controlled by the GNLF, fear losing their jobs if the new appointments are made. They have formed an association and have demanded that their services, too, should be regularised.

In all, 182 candidates passed the SSC in 2000. However, GNLF chief Subash Ghisingh refused to appoint them, saying that the commission’s rules should not be implemented in the hill schools because they are linguistic minority institutions.

Later, 44 of the 182 empanelled candidates approached Calcutta High Court, which on September 7, 2007 directed the Bengal government to immediately appoint the petitioners. Under instructions from the state governmen, the DGHC then prepared a list of schools with vacant teaching posts and told the institutions’ managing committees to appoint the SSC qualified candidates.

“We are ensuring that no ad-hoc teacher is removed. We will appoint the 44 candidates only in those posts that are completely vacant,” DGHC principal secretary Rajesh Pandey said.

However, the appointment letters, which were supposed to be issued today, have been kept on hold as the Hill Organiser Secondary Teachers’ Association has claimed that about 35 of the 44 posts already had ad-hoc teachers.

The Association is now banking on another part of the high court’s order, which directed the state government to form a committee to find out if the hill schools can be termed linguistic minority institutions.