Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of Calcutta High Court on Friday cancelled the jobs of over 36,000 “untrained” teachers in government-aided primary schools.
A fresh panel has to be drawn up for recruitment within three months, he said.
The exercise has to be funded from the account of former primary education board chief Manik Bhattacharya, the judge said. Bhattacharya is in custody in connection with alleged irregularities in recruitments in government-aided primary schools.
Justice Gangopadhyay’s order said the teachers who lost their jobs be asked to continue for four months, when they will get salaries on a par with para-teachers (who help regular teachers in running schools).
“Meanwhile, the primary education board will have to start the process of filling the vacant posts of teachers within three months,” the judge said.
“The board would have to make an arrangement for a video recording of the process of recruitment and the entire expenses incurred by the board for the fresh recruitment process would have to be borne by the former president of the primary education board, Manik Bhattacharya.”
The judge observed that it was Bhattacharya who had recruited primary teachers “flouting the norms”.
Education department officials said the primary board would appeal against Justice Gangopadhyay’s order because the untrained candidates had been recruited following a written permission from then Union human resource development minister Smriti Irani.
“The board will take appropriate steps after going through the court order. These teachers were trained in the ODL (open and distance learning) mode after 2017,” said Goutam Paul, president of the primary board.
These teachers had written the Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) in 2015.
Since the right to education act was enacted in 2009, the National Council for Technical Education (NCTE) has been insisting on recruiting candidates with a diploma in elementary education as teachers in primary schools.
But for years, since the Left Front regime, West Bengal has been recruiting untrained candidates.
In 2015, the primary board had issued a notification saying the recruitment test would be held in compliance with the NCTE guideline, meaning only trained candidates would be recruited.
But then it emerged the state did not have enough trained candidates, said board sources.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had spoken to HRD minister Irani about the issue. The primary board recruited the untrained candidates in 2016 after the ministry relaxed the norm, officials said.
The Centre’s relaxation was valid till 2016, the official said.