The Santoshpur school where teachers were held hostage for 22 hours has iterated that none of the 29 Class XII students who had failed the selection test would be allowed to take the Higher Secondary exam next year.

Sreemati Ghosh, the headmistress of Rishi Aurobindo Balika Vidyapeeth, announced the decision after the authorities rechecked the tabulation sheet and the answer scripts of the 29 students.

“All 29 students will have to repeat Class XII. We have re-examined our tabulation sheet and answer scripts and found that our assessment was correct. There is no way we can allow any of the failed students to write HS next year,” said Ghosh.

The announcement followed a letter from the council, requesting the school to consider whether at least some of the 29 students could be allowed to appear in HS 2013. Ghosh admitted having received a letter from the council but refused to divulge the content.

The failed students had laid siege to Ghosh’s room and held her and 13 of her colleagues hostage for 22 hours from Monday afternoon, demanding that they be declared passed.

Two officials of the HS council came to the school on Tuesday afternoon in an attempt to get the gherao lifted and ordered the school to hold a re-test for the 29 students, a decision that triggered student unrest in several institutions across the city over similar issues.

A meeting Ghosh held with the other teachers on Friday afternoon unanimously decided against a re-examination. “There is no question of holding a fresh examination as there was no flaw in our evaluation. The council should not have given such an order,” said a teacher of the school.

The firmness shown by the Santoshpur school has brought relief to several HS schools fearing a repeat of the siege on their campuses to force the authorities to promote failed students.

“The council’s decision had set a bad precedent. But by sticking to their stand, the authorities of Rishi Aurobindo Balika Vidyapeeth have given us the courage to deal with similar situations on our campus,” said the headmaster of a government-sponsored school in north Calcutta.

The Santoshpur school authorities, a source revealed, were flooded with phone calls and text messages from teachers from other schools, requesting them to reject the HS council’s unjust order.

The council officials who visited the school on Tuesday — secretary Achintya Pal and deputy secretary (exams) Moloy Roy — took away the tabulation sheet and all answer scripts of the selection test before asking the authorities to conduct a re-test.

The tabulation sheet and the answer scripts were returned on Thursday.