The state primary education board president on Saturday said 36,000 primary school teachers who stand to lose their jobs on grounds of not having training, following a Calcutta High Court order, had been trained by 2019 in compliance with a directive from the National Council for Teachers’ Education.
Board president Goutam Paul said they would move a higher court against Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay’s order on the termination of jobs to raise this point.
The board is going to move court early next week so they can secure a stay on Justice Gangopadhyay’s order, a board official said.
He said NCTE had granted the board permission to recruit untrained candidates as teachers in government-aided primary schools and then train them by 2019. This was after then Union human resources minister Smriti Irani relaxed norms so untrained candidates could write the Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) in 2015, he said.
The official said during the appeal, the court would be apprised that the Union education ministry had accorded the Bengal government a one-time permission to recruit untrained candidates as teachers.
“The NCTE, under the Union education ministry, permitted us to get untrained candidates, who had been recruited as teachers, trained by 2019. A similar relaxation was granted to other states as well. If the board moves court, we would highlight this point,” Goutam Paul told The Telegraph on Saturday.
The NCTE’s decision to complete the training by 2019 was in continuation of the relaxation of norms that then HRD minister Irani had accorded to the Bengal government in 2015, said a senior board official.
Justice Gangopadhyay on Friday cancelled the jobs of over 36,000 teachers in government-aided primary schools because they did not have a diploma in elementary education (DElEd) training when they were recruited in 2016.
A board official said the decision to recruit untrained candidates was not without reason. “There was a context. The state did not have enough trained candidates ahead of holding TET in October 2015 and so, chief minister Mamata Banerjee in March that year wrote to then Union HRD minister Irani so untrained candidates could be appointed as teachers because the state was reeling under a crunch of teachers. In April 2015, Irani extended the relaxation till 2016,” he said.
Justice Gangopadhyay on Friday ordered that a fresh panel be drawn up for recruitment within three months to fill up the vacancies arising out of the termination of jobs and that the exercise be funded from the account of former primary education board chief Manik Bhattacharya.
“We are taking legal opinion on the order,” a board official said.
Board president Paul declined to comment on Saturday about the court's observation on not holding aptitude tests during recruitment. He told TV channel ABP Ananda on Friday that the board had conducted interviews and aptitude tests.