Students, teaching and non-teaching staff of Promod Nagar High School at Falakata block in Alipurduar district on Monday protested against the termination of two teachers from their institution following the April 3 Supreme Court order invalidating over 25,000 appointments of the state’s SSC’s 2016 panel.

Students held a separate road blockade in support of the two teachers while the staff held a pen-down strike.

Because of the staff strike, the school had to postpone its first summative exam, which was scheduled to begin with the maths paper for Classes VI to X on Monday. Three summative exams are held annually.

Headmaster Pradeep Sanyal said: “This morning (Monday), the staff informed me of their decision to observe a pen-down protest. Therefore, I postponed today’s (Monday’s) scheduled summative-I maths exam to April 12.”

The high school, some 53km from the Alipurduar district headquarters, has around 600 students. It had 11 permanent teachers, four para-teachers and six non-teaching staff.

With the Supreme Court ruling, it is left with nine permanent teachers. Sanyal refused to divulge the names of the two teachers.

As the exam was cancelled, students were asked to go home.

In an unexpected turn of events, around 200 students from the school did not go home but instead blocked a nearby rural road demanding that the two teachers who lost their jobs be reinstated immediately.

Holding placards and shouting slogans, the students stated they didn’t fully understand the legal whys and wherefores but insisted their teachers be allowed to continue with their jobs.

The protest lasted around 30 minutes before the school staff, upon hearing of it, rushed to the spot and persuaded the students to lift their blockade.

The apex court had declared the state’s 2016 SSC recruitment drive as “vitiated and tainted beyond resolution.”