The state government has cancelled its decision to transfer teachers in government-aided secondary and higher secondary schools because the en masse termination of teachers’ jobs by the Supreme Court has plunged many institutes into crisis.

An order signed by a deputy secretary in the school education department, sent to the school service commission on Friday, says: “The undersigned is directed to state that the previous Memo... of this department is hereby cancelled till further order and the transfer of the teachers in terms of those orders is withdrawn.”

The school education department was transferring the teachers in an attempt to “rationalise teachers” in schools.

The department intended to transfer surplus teachers of a school to another school that is struggling because of fewer teachers.

As part of the move, 494 teachers had been identified.

“...the Supreme Court’s April 3 order has changed the scenario. The schools that had surplus teachers are now struggling following the large-scale termination of teachers. Rationalisation cannot be implemented now. So, the decision has been cancelled,” said an official of the department.

The Supreme Court on April 3 terminated the jobs of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff because the entire recruitment process was “vitiated”. Of this, the number of teachers is close to 18,000.

An official of the education department said they could not hold any recruitment test after 2016, following complaints of litigation against the alleged irregularities in the recruitment process.

“The 18,000-odd teachers who had been recruited based on the state-level-selection test (SLST) held in November 2016 have lost their jobs because the Supreme Court said the entire recruitment process was “vitiated’....The schools are struggling. In such a scenario, the transfer is being cancelled.”