Over one thousand teachers “not found specifically tainted” and allowed to return to schools till December have been staging a sit-in outside Bikash Bhavan, the education department headquarters in Salt Lake, since Wednesday afternoon.
They are protesting the school education department and the school service commission’s decision to file review petitions before the Supreme Court, allegedly without consulting them.
The department and the SSC filed the petition last week, seeking a review of the Supreme Court’s April 3 order terminating the jobs of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff at the government-aided schools at the secondary and higher secondary levels.
One of the protesting teachers, Sangita Sinha, said while addressing the aggrieved teachers at Netaji Indoor Stadium on April 7 chief minister Mamata Banerjee had said that the state government would consult the representatives of the terminated teachers before filing the review petitions.
“But we were not consulted. It is from media reports that we knew that the state and the SSC had filed their review petitions,” said Sinha, who used to teach computer applications in a secondary school in Durgapur.
The chief minister had said a WhatsApp group would be created with those representing the sacked and aggrieved teachers so the state government could apprise them about the legal course her government would take.
Mehboob Mandal, a teacher present on the dais at Netaji Indoor Stadium on April 7, said: “We were never apprised of the legal course the state government is taking. We are completely clueless. All we know is that the state government and the SSC have filed review petitions. But we don’t know what will happen to us after December 31. The state government has not made it clear how we are going to be reinstated with full honours.”
The teachers who are protesting are among the 15,403 teachers who have been identified as “not found to be specifically tainted” by the commission from a pool of 17,206 teachers in pursuance of the Supreme Court’s April 17 order where the apex court modified its April 3 order following an appeal from the state secondary education board. They will receive salaries till December.
The remaining 1,804 teachers have been barred from returning to schools.
The protesting teachers carrying the banner of the Deserving Teachers’ Association Rights Forum remained seated on footpaths and roads skirting the Bhavan.
Since the summer vacation has started in government and aided schools, the teachers have resumed protests.
Sources in the department said the WhatsApp group could not be formed as the teachers did not give their names.
“The review petition has been filed so their jobs can be protected. Let the Supreme Court go through it and give its order. The teachers should have faith in the government,” said an official.
Education minister Bratya Basu told Metro: “I don’t know what they are agitating about. They have not spoken to me.”
SSC chairperson Siddhartha Majumder declined to comment.
Sources in the commission said that since the teachers have diverse opinions, consultation would only delay the filing of petitions.
On April 17, the apex court asked the state government and the school service commission to give affidavits by May 31 about the fresh recruitment exercise to fill up the posts that fall vacant following the en masse scrapping of jobs.