Being a schoolteacher in Bengal was a matter of pride. Not anymore, for many.

The controversy around the recruitment of teachers appears to have robbed the profession of some of its sheen.

The Supreme Court order not only scrapped nearly 26,000 jobs. It said the entire selection process had been vitiated.

The case was confined to one batch. But the ripples have travelled much beyond in the people’s court, putting many more schoolteachers under the scanner.

“The general public is not so discerning and the impression is that the entire school system is corrupt,” said a 40-year-old resident of Behala Parnasree who teaches in a school in South 24-Parganas. He has not lost his job.

“My father was a schoolteacher all his life. He was so proud when I became one. I am happy that he is not alive to see this day,” he said.

A teacher who travels from south Calcutta to a government-aided school in Hooghly got a phone call on Thursday. It was her uncle, who had not spoken with her in a long time.

“He asked if I was in a private or a government-aided school. I knew where the conversation was headed. I said I was recruited through the school service exam,” she said.

His next question was more direct, “Do you still have a job?” The woman replied she had appeared for the West Bengal School Service Commission in 2010.

The 25,773 who have lost their jobs wrote their selection test in 2016.

“It is as if I have to prove my abilities once again to those around me. They want to know, and I am expected to answer. Questions like if I was not in the 2016 panel, then which year was I in,” said Sayani Chakraborty, a teacher at Children’s Welfare Association High School for Girls. She appeared for the selection test in 2012.

In a packed Metro compartment on Friday, a group of mothers taking their daughters home from school was discussing the Supreme Court order. The conversation soon spiralled beyond their seats.

“Medicine and teaching used to be the two most noble professions. We can see how doctors have become pawns in private hospitals. This scam shows that teachers are also corrupt,” said a middle-aged man among them.

A teacher who has recently shifted to a housing complex on the northern fringes of Calcutta said she had been subjected to “questioning glances” from neighbours.

“Some of them, a little more aware, only asked in which year I was recruited. Many others are not so discreet,” said the teacher recruited in 2007.

The woman travels to Chakdaha, 60km away, for work.

Several teachers said the prolonged period of dispute and multiple court cases have cast aspersions on the teaching profession itself.

“There was a sense of pride associated with the teaching profession. Now, we have been reduced to subjects of humiliation. You can tell between concern and curiosity by how they are asking,” said Chakraborty, the teacher at Children’s Welfare Association High School for Girls.

A psychotherapist said many feed on other people’s lives and stories and their curiosity gets the better of them.

“They lack basic sensitivity and sensibility. As a people, we allow others to routinely infringe our boundaries and ask questions, which is unacceptable in many cultures,” the counsellor said.

Acquaintances are not the only ones asking questions.

Two teachers at a Behala school had to face an auto driver’s questions on Friday morning.

“How many teachers in your school?” the man asked.