Tamluk, June 15: Over 1,600 primary school teachers of East Midnapore will have to a take a test again and qualify to keep their jobs.

Hundreds of them assembled today in front of the district primary school council’s office in Tamluk town and protested the decision which, officials said, was necessitated by a Calcutta High Court order.

On June 20, the 1,665 teachers who have been working for the past three months will have to write the test with almost 48,000 others.

“Why should we suffer because of a mistake by the council. The dispute, following which came the court order being cited now, was the result of a faulty council decision,” said one of the protesting teachers.

In 2005, the council had sought to fill 1,365 primary school vacancies and received 1,800 applications. The next year, it issued another ad to fill 300 vacancies and as many as 4,500 people applied.

According to rules, two separate panels should have been drawn up but, instead, the council merged the two batches and recruited the 1,665 from among the 5,300 applicants.

Some of those from among the 1,800 who had applied in 2005 and failed to get jobs moved court after the results were declared this March, alleging that they had been denied a fair chance. The possibility of their getting jobs would have been greater had the council recruited 1,365 teachers from among 1,800 applicants.

The recruitment was stalled between 2006 and 2010 because of confusion following a high court bar on most of the state’s primary teacher training institutes.

The court upheld the aggrieved candidates’ view last month and asked the council to appoint the teachers from two separate panels.

The council issued a fresh ad to fill 4,000 vacancies and asked the 1,665 who had already been appointed to apply afresh. Nearly 1.5 lakh others also applied for the 4,000 jobs. Of them, 50,000 have been selected to take the June 20 test.

For the teachers drawing Rs 11,700 a month, the sudden uncertainty over their jobs is a nightmare. “They can’t take our jobs away,” said one.

Another teacher wanted a guarantee that they would be selected again. “I used to give private tuition to feed my two children, wife and aged parents. But there was uncertainty all the time. I had just begun life anew when everything seems to be going wrong again,” said a man from near Haldia.

Council chief Onkar Prasad Ray found “nothing wrong in the decision”.

Cop jobs

The government admitted in the high court today it could not fill vacancies in state police from a panel drawn for Calcutta police. The court had asked it to clear its stand after the move had been challenged.