All is not well in FE Block’s Bidhannagar Municipal School (BMS). The school’s managing committee has issued a notice to the principal asking her to step down and assume responsibility for the primary section alone and the principal in turn has gone to court challenging the order. 

Bhaswati Chakraborty has been principal of both senior and junior sections of the school since 2010. Her appointment letter stated a two-year probation, which she has cleared. But on January 31, the school’s managing committee served her a notice asking her to relinquish her responsibilities in the senior section and become principal of the primary section only. Subhashis Bhattacharya, who was so far the vice-principal, was advised to take charge as acting principal of the secondary section.

Chakraborty filed a case challenging the decision. “If there was a problem it should have been made clear to my client six weeks before the probation ended,” said Subir Sanyal, the lawyer representing Chakraborty. “Moreover, she was recruited for both the sections so why is she being demoted now and being asked to head only the primary section?” 
“I feel that I have been denied justice. I waited for five years for confirmation and had faith in the management of the school. However, this demotion has forced me to take the course of law,” is all that the visibly distraught principal managed to say.

 

Back story 
The school was founded in 1997. It moved to its present address near FE Park in 1999 after the initial phase when classes were held in Acharya Prafulla Chandra School, BK Block. 

The school is governed by a managing committee the president of which is the chairperson of Bidhannagar Municipality (at present Krishna Chakraborty) and secretary is the chairman-in-council member in charge of education (at present Ashesh Mukherjee). 

Two municipal councillors are also on the board, as are a government nominee and a “person with interest in education”. There is also representation from the guardians. 

Before the Pujas of 2014, a tender was floated by the school asking for contractors to build a fourth storey above the existing three. According to school officials, the chosen contractor had quoted Rs 70 lakh and started work shortly afterwards. Even now scaffolding stands in place on top of the third floor.

“But soon after he started work, the contractor wanted to apply for a bank loan and asked the school to become the guarantor,” said the source. “This means that in case of the contractor’s non-repayment, the school would be liable to pay the bank. And to ensure this doesn’t happen, the school would have had to go on paying the contractor even if we found his work to be shoddy. It would be a catch 22 situation so the principal refused,” the source added. It is alleged that this didn’t go down well with the managing committee.

Officialspeak
Mukherjee, the secretary of the managing committee, says Chakraborty had no reason to go to court. “We decided to split the sections to appease two warring sides,” he said. 

“The majority of the schoolteachers is against Chakraborty. I tried many ploys but a lot of the internal problems persisted. So the managing committee proposed that there should be two principals to ensure effective administration of the entire school,” he said. 

“We will publish an advertisement seeking candidates for the post of senior school principal. But if the chosen candidate is less qualified than Chakraborty, we shall place him/her as principal of the primary section and Chakraborty will head the senior school,” said Mukherjee.

Parents for principal
Parents are not buying this theory. “Chakraborty is an able administrator and I think that managing committee should focus on bigger issues like developing infrastructure of the school rather than removing her. She has really worked for the betterment of the students,” said Soumen Mullick, who has a son and a daughter studying in the school. 

On Wednesday, more than 250 guardians signed and forwarded copies of a petition to Bidhannagar Municipality, the sub-divisional officer and the state school education department requesting them to ensure that Chakraborty stays in charge of the entire school.

According to guardians, Chakraborty has taken several measures that had soured her relation with the teachers. “Before she came the school was languishing. But she made some fool-proof changes. For instance, she introduced a biometric attendance system for teachers. Now teachers have to swipe their finger on a gadget to get their entry and exit timings recorded,” said Prashanta Guha, whose daughter is in Class IX.

As of Wednesday Chakraborty sat in the principal’s chair but the court will decided what happens next in the school.