Vowing not to sit for fresh recruitment tests, the protesting teachers – terminated on April 3 following a Supreme Court order invalidating the appointments of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff of state-aided schools – on Monday announced plans to take their agitation beyond West Bengal to the national capital.
“In the coming days, apart from continuing our protests here in the city, we wish to let the nation know about the injustice meted out to thousands of eligible teachers who had qualified in the 2016 SSC exams by their own merit and qualification,” said Brindaban Ghosh, a member of the Deserving Teachers Rights Forum.
“Why should untainted teachers continue to be penalised for the illegalities committed by a section of candidates? Why can’t the available mirror OMR images be used to differentiate between the ‘tainted’ and ‘untainted’?” He was part of a six-member delegation that met Principal Education Secretary Vinod Kumar and Secretary Subhra Chakraborty.We are not ready for any fresh tests after such gruelling preparations for the 2016 WBSSC recruitment examinations and being considered eligible for the jobs,” Mr Ghosh asserted.
“If a small percentage was involved in illegalities, why should every eligible candidate be victimised?”, he said.
He added, “With all humility, we again urge the state government to ensure that the tainted ones are singled out by checking every OMR sheet of about 26,000 candidates.”
Another forum member Habibur Rahman said, “Even if there was miscommunication between the SC bench and the state over the issue in previous hearings, we now humbly urge the apex court to consider our situation from a humanitarian point of view.”Expressing regret that neither Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee nor Education Minister Bratya Basu sat with them to listen to their demands, Rahman said, “The two top education officials voiced their sympathy about our situation. They said they would communicate with the government regarding our stand.”
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