Heads of government-aided schools have started calling the dismissed teachers who are eligible to take classes and draw salaries till December 31.

Lists segregating the “not specifically found to be tainted” teachers reached the heads on Wednesday morning.

“We got the list from the office of the district inspector of schools and found that of two teachers recruited based on the 2016 test, one name features on the segregated list (not specifically found tainted). So, we have asked the assistant teacher of math to come to school from Thursday,” said Raja Dey, headmaster of Mitra Institution,
Bhowanipore.

Both teachers of the Bhowanipore school went to school on April 19, the first working day since the Supreme Court’s April 17 order that permitted those “not specifically found tainted” to resume work.

But they stopped going to school after that, in the absence of a directive from the school service commission on who was and was not eligible.

“Now that a segregated list has come, we would have only one of them return,” said Dey.

The segregated list for the North 24-Parganas district did not feature the name of Chinmoy Mandal, a leader of the Deserving Teachers’ Rights Forum that has been leading the protests outside the SSC office to press for the publication of such a list.

Mandal used to teach English at a school in Halisahar, North 24-Parganas.

“My name does not feature on the list. This has happened to others, too. I don’t know how this happened. We are talking to the commission about these lapses,” Mandal said on Wednesday evening.

Three teachers resumed duties at Dum Dum Shree Aurobindo Vidyamandir, said headmaster Ashim Nanda.

Supriya Panja, headmaster of Park Institution in Shyambazar in north Calcutta, said one of the two teachers sacked by the Supreme Court can resume duties.

The Supreme Court terminated the jobs of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff on April 3.

The education department started delivering the lists after purging the names of those deemed “tainted” from a pool of 17,602 teachers appointed to state-aided schools on the basis of the 2016 state-level selection test.

The list has names of 15,400 “specifically found to be tainted” teachers. They can go to schools till December 31, by when the state government will have to complete a fresh recruitment process.

The list has the name of the teacher, the subject he or she teaches and the name of the school, along with the district where the school is located.

Sources in the SSC said the names of 1,806 teachers had been removed as they were found guilty of offences like OMR manipulation and jumping of ranks.

While the heads of schools are heaving a sigh of relief with the teachers returning, many are worried whether those who have been spared will be able to deliver their best amid “uncertainty about their future”.

The teachers will have to clear a fresh test to retain their school jobs.

The education department on Wednesday told the schools to upload details of the teachers “not specifically found to be tainted” on the government’s salary portal.