The north Bengal regional office of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and (below) the West Bengal Council for Higher Secondary Education, located at Shivmandir near Siliguri. Pictures by Kundan Yolmo

Siliguri, March 12: More than 100 teachers supporting a Gorkha Janmukti Morcha union have refused to collect the answer scripts of the Madhyamik exams for evaluation to pressure the government into fulfilling their demands.

Members of the Janmukti Secondary Teachers’ Organisation (JSTO) had on Tuesday decided not to evaluate the Madhyamik answer papers and threatened to abstain from invigilating in the Higher Secondary exams, starting on March 17, if the Bengal government did not fulfil their demands.

The teachers want the formation of an adhoc board to recommend the regularisation of contract teachers, the appointment of headmasters and the recognition and upgrade of junior high schools.

The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, which conducts the Madhyamik exams, had asked 102 teachers from the hills to collect the answer sheets from its regional office in Siliguri yesterday.

“About 1.94 lakh candidates appeared for Madhyamik exams in north Bengal this year. The distribution of answer scripts to the teachers for evaluation had started. We had asked 102 teachers from the hills to come to our office and collect the answer papers,” said Debasis Dutta, the regional officer of the board. “However, none of them turned up. We have informed our superiors in Calcutta about the boycott and are waiting for necessary instructions.”

According to Dutta, around 350 to 400 teachers from the three hill subdivisions figured in the list of examiners prepared by the board to check the Madhyamik papers. “If all of them refrain from the evaluation, it would definitely be a problem for us as we need to find other teachers to fill the gap.”

Mamata Roy, the president of the board, said over the phone from Calcutta: “We distribute answer scripts in phases; so, there is still time. I hope the deadlock will be over soon.”

Officials of the West Bengal Council for Higher Secondary Education are also scratching their heads over how to tackle the JSTO’s threat to abstain from supervising the exams.

Onkar Sadhan Adhikari, the president of the council, said over the phone from Calcutta that he would like to appeal to the JSTO through The Telegraph to revoke their decision and oversee the Higher Secondary examinations in the hills.

The official said the council had already sent a letter to the union through the Darjeeling district magistrate, requesting it to reconsider the decision, as he could not go to Darjeeling on a short notice.

“I would like to appeal to the teachers with folded hands that they should think of the students and change the decision. It is not possible to conduct the exams without the help of teachers.”

Asked if the council would depute teachers from the plains to the exam centres in the hills, Adhikari said: “We cannot think of such arrangements right now as there are a number of issues associated with them. The exam process is elaborate and altering it all of a sudden is not easy.”

An official at the council said they feared that the teachers might refuse to check the HS answer scripts also.

JSTO sources claimed school education minister Partha Dey had sent the union a fax in the evening, requesting it to refrain from any activity that would hamper the interest of the students. Dey said many of the demands had been attended to by the government and the rest would also be looked into soon.

The HS exams will be conducted at five centres in the three subdivisions of Kurseong, Kalimpong and Darjeeling from where 5,802 candidates will appear this year.

The JSTO leaders sounded undeterred even today. “We have been harping on a number of longstanding issues but the state government or the DGHC have never paid any attention. So, we have decided to boycott the exams. We are ready to sit across the table and discuss our demands,” said Bijay Pradhan, the secretary of the JSTO.

Asked whether the union would protest if the teachers from the plains were deputed as invigilators at the HS centres in hills, Pradhan said: “It is for the government and the council to decide. However, none of our members will work as supervisors.”