Stung by a shortage of teachers following Thursday’s Supreme Court order, schools will struggle to conduct classes, the state higher secondary council has warned.

“Around 16,000 teachers have lost their jobs. The schools will struggle to conduct classes, both in secondary and higher secondary sections,” Chiranjeeb Bhattacharya, president of West Bengal Council For Higher Secondary Education, said on Friday.

In most schools, Class XII students will begin the academic year next week. Class XI will start in June, after the Madhyamik results are out.

“Class XII students have to attend third and fourth semester classes. The third semester has multiple choice questions. The fourth semester focuses more on short and descriptive answers. The teaching method needs to adapt accordingly. It is a specialised job. Finding so many replacements is a big challenge,” said Bhattacharya.

“Class XI begins in June. But the chances of finding alternate teachers by then are very bleak. We are in touch with the state education department to find a solution,” he said.

The heads of the institutions in and around Calcutta said they were left with no alternative but to suspend some classes.

Three teachers of VIP Nagar High School, off EM Bypass, have lost their jobs following the order. That has left the school without a science teacher for Classes IX and X.

The higher secondary section of the school does not offer science courses.

The three teachers who lost their jobs taught history, life science and physical science, respectively.

“The life science and physical science teachers taught Classes IX and X. With their jobs gone, we do not have any other teacher to teach life science and physical science to the students of Class IX and X. There is only a math teacher,” said Dipen Sahoo, the headmaster.

“We do not have funds to recruit new part-time teachers. In all likelihood, the classes will be kept on hold till we find a solution,” he said.

A school in Kasba, Tiljala Balika Vidyalaya, has lost three teachers. Two of them taught math in Classes IX and X and the third taught chemistry in higher secondary.

Class XII classes will begin on Saturday and the school has decided to suspend the chemistry lessons for now.

“We had a single chemistry teacher in higher secondary so we cannot send anyone for substitution. Chemistry is such a specialised subject in higher secondary that I cannot even ask a math or a physics teacher to substitute. We have no option but to keep the classes on hold,” said headmistress Avinanda Ghosh Dastidar.

For Classes IX and X, the school has prepared a provisional timetable where other teachers will be on substitution. “But this is not a long term solution,” she said.

Chetla Girls High School has also lost three teachers following the order.

One of them taught commerce in the higher secondary section. She was one of the two commerce teachers for students of Classes XI and XII.

“We had two commerce teachers. Now, one of them has to teach all four commerce subjects. It is going to be very tough,” said Satyabati Nadkar, the headmistress.

Jadavpur Vidyapith has lost its lone computer science teacher following the order.

“He was the lone teacher of computer science in our school. Class XII is starting next week. I don’t know how to get a replacement,” said Partha Pratim Baidya, the headmaster.

The scrutiny of higher secondary exam papers will also come under strain, said council chief Bhattacharya.

“We had around 50,000 teachers who checked the papers. Around 15 per cent (7,500) have lost their jobs,” Bhattacharya said.