Secondary Edu Board moves SC, seeks ‘modification’ in order annulling more than 25,000 school jobs
Kolkata: The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) has filed an appeal before the Supreme Court for modification of its April 3 order in connection with the invalidation of the appointment of 25,753 teachers and staffers recruited by the West Bengal School Service Commission in 2016.
In its appeal before the Apex Court, the WBBSE has prayed for permitting the appointees not found to be tainted to continue service till the end of the academic year or until the process of fresh appointments to such posts are concluded, whichever is earlier.
The Board, in its petition, has indicated that pursuant to the judgment, the services of 17,206 out of the total 1,51,568 teachers—constituting 11.35 per cent of the existing teaching staff—are to be terminated.
WBBSE has provided a list of schools with teachers and stated that academics will suffer due to the sudden termination, as the academic year starts in January and classes are already midway.
“Board examinations for both the Secondary and Higher Secondary levels were just concluded and the evaluation of the answer scripts has been under process. The immediate termination of services of teachers who are involved in the evaluation process would cause a significant delay in evaluation and publication of results of the board examinations jeopardising the future academic cycle and careers of such students and may affect standard of evaluation.
Notably, over 7,000 examiners have been impacted. In the event the evaluation process, particularly for Class XII students is delayed, it would have a cascading effect on the various entrance exams and selection process for professional courses that they would be appearing in,” the appeal reads.
The petition has further pointed out that if the services of non-teaching staff are terminated with immediate effect without fresh appointments in place, various aspects of the school management like cleaning and sanitation, maintenance of lab equipment, library management, organising mid-day meals, atcetera will suffer.
