The ripple effects of the Supreme Court's decision to invalidate over 25,000 appointments made through the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) are continuing to deepen across north Bengal.

In South Dinajpur district, around 580 persons, teaching and non-teaching staff included, have lost their jobs.

In some schools, authorities are assigning BEd students, who have enrolled themselves for “practice teaching” as a part of their course, to work as invigilators in exam halls and take classes in certain subjects.

Soumit Das, the headmaster of the Balurghat Nalanda Vidyapith, said three teachers of his school lost their jobs.

“In such a situation, BEd students who joined our school as a part of practice teaching are taking classes. Once their course ends, we don’t know how we will manage,” said Das.

Beyond the immediate chaos already witnessed in several institutions, well-known Siliguri schools such as Siliguri Vivekananda Vidyalaya, Tarai Tarapada Adarsha Vidyalaya and Netaji Boys High School are now grappling with an acute manpower crisis, disrupting academic routines and pushing the staff into an atmosphere of confusion and distress.

At the Siliguri Vivekananda Vidyalaya, the removal of a history teacher and a group C clerk has left a visible void.

“The clerk, though still attending school, is uncertain about his position. The absence of the teacher has also affected ongoing unit tests, with no clarity on how assessments will be completed or who will take over his responsibilities. This was never expected,” said a teacher.

At the Tarai Tarapada Adarsha Vidyalaya which has around 2,700 students, three teachers, one in chemistry and two in geography, have lost their jobs with the apex court ruling.

“These three teachers alone handled 72 classes every week. Redistributing that load among the remaining teachers is nearly impossible,” said Asok Kumar Nath, the headmaster.

The chemistry teacher had been handling senior secondary classes, and both the geography teachers covered critical stages of the academic ladder, from the fifth to twelfth standards, he added.

The situation at the Netaji Boys High School, which has over 1,800 students, mirrors this growing crisis.

Four teachers who used to teach English, chemistry, geography and commerce, and two group D staffers have lost their jobs.

Rajib Ghosh, the headmaster, said they are now left with only two group D staffers.

“They handle vital operational duties outside the classroom. Without them, simple daily activities are disrupted. Academically, we are in a crisis. There is no chemistry teacher in the school now,” said a Ghosh, who is now stepping in to teach chemistry.

In Malda, several schools do not have the minimum number of teachers to teach certain subjects, especially in the science stream.

At the Shitalpur Mobarakpur High School in Chachal-I block, eight teachers appointed in 2019 from the 2016 panel of the SSC have lost their jobs. All of them used to teach science subjects from classes VII to XII. The school has 2,768 students.

A similar situation prevails at the Hatimari High School in the Gazole block of Malda, which has 2,950 students. Thirteen out of 38 teachers are not joining their duties following the verdict of the Supreme Court.

"Most used to teach science subjects. In their absence, it will be a tough task to teach science properly to those students," said headmaster Apu Poddar.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court upheld an order by Calcutta High Court that invalidated the appointments of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff in Bengal's state-run and state-aided schools in 2016, saying that the selecting process was vitiated by manipulation and fraud.