Many teachers are worried about how they will run their families. Many schools are worried about how they will complete the syllabus.
Uncertainty and anxiety loom over the thousands of teachers who are set to
lose their jobs after the Calcutta High Court order on Monday.
A teacher in a school in Murshidabad whose wife gave birth to a daughter on Sunday was “jobless” on Monday. “I am worried about how I will bring her up,” said the teacher, the sole bread-earner in his family.
Another teacher who has an MSc in botany joined a school, bought an apartment a couple of years later and has a loan to pay back.
An MSc in chemistry who was preparing to take the heat-forced online classes on Monday learnt from a school WhatsApp group that her job stood cancelled.
While teachers are trying to come to terms with the ignominy of losing jobs, schools are worried about the completion of the syllabus. The court order will result in many teaching posts for Classes IX to XII falling vacant again.
Almost every school has one or more teachers who will lose jobs after Monday’s order. Bengal has about 12,000 high schools.
“We will be losing three teachers in Classes IX and X. Two of them teach math and the other physical science. It will be a challenge to complete our syllabus, especially for the Madhyamik (Class X) students. We try to finish the Madhyamik syllabus by September-October. One of the teachers also took classes in the higher secondary section,” said Avinanda Ghosh Dastidar, the headmistress of a school in east Calcutta.
Ghosh Dastidar said these posts were filled in 2019, after a gap of almost 12 years.
“We have three more vacancies (between Classes V and X). So once this court order comes into effect, we will be short by six teachers,” said Ghosh Dastidar.
As part of the probe, the teachers on several occasions had to send their documents — proof of educational qualifications, for example — for verification. At least once they had to submit their admit cards for the state-level selection test.
“I appeared in the exam in November 2016 and I joined a school in Calcutta in January 2019. I always wanted to do a government job and once I
got that, I did not try for any other job,” said a 34-year-old teacher.
“I used to get about Rs 44,000 in hand. It’s a shock to suddenly find myself unemployed. Already, there are so many unemployed people, so where do I get another job?” said the mother of a five-year-old.
The heads of several schools said genuine candidates should not suffer.
“A person can be a good teacher but we cannot assess whether he or she got the job through fair means. At the most we can verify their marksheets but that does not indicate anything. Their OMR sheets need to be verified,” said Soumen Pal, headmaster of a school in Belgharia.