Bhubaneswar, April 4: Majority of teachers, whom the Council of Higher Secondary Education had assigned the duty to evaluate answer scripts, did not turn up to check Plus Two papers on the first day of evaluation today.

The council had a hard time today with the teachers going back to continue their protest of demanding full grant-in-aid.

The situation is worrying for students because this could possibly mean the results not being published on time. Although the council authorities refused to give the exact details of the number of evaluators, who turned up to carry out their evaluation duties, sources said that barely 30 per cent teachers came to the centres in Bhubaneswar, Balasore and Baripada.

The 488 and 662 category colleges, which had 8,000 teachers, most of who have been trained and assigned with evaluation process, did not take part in the process of the first day today.

"We have called an examination committee meeting tomorrow where alternative arrangements will be decided. Also, we will decide how to take the erring teachers to task," said council chairman Basudev Chhatoi, adding that it was very unbecoming of teachers to blackmail the state machinery using students.

"I urge the teachers to join the duties for the greater interest of the students and publish the results in time to help students apply for higher studies," Chhatoi said.

Higher education minister Pradeep Panigrahi, however, assured the students and their guardians today that the exam results would be published on time. "We have planned to rope in retired teachers as well as teachers from self-financing colleges," said Panigrahi.

Although the authorities spoke of making alternate arrangement to fill in for the protesting teachers, the idea appeared impractical because the exercise was a specialised process, and it required teachers specially trained in e-evaluation. While most retired teachers are unlikely to be computer savvy, the risk of erroneous evaluation would be more in case of untrained teachers.

The teachers had called off their protest last month to undertake their board examination duties (Classes X and XII). At that time, thousands of teachers from the block grant schools in the state staged a sit-in at Lower PMG Square in the city for one-and-a-half months. Various other teachers' bodies, which had decided to rejoin their duties and co-operate in the conduct of matriculation examinations that started on February 22, also decided to resume their protests.

The Block Grant Secondary Schoolteachers and Employees' Association that had called off its strike following an interim order by Orissa High Court asking them to join the examination duty also decided to resume its agitation.