West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education had to arrange for substitute personnel at around 25 per cent of the 2,439 higher secondary examination exam venues because of the West Bengal School Service Commission’s decision to sack over 2,600 Group C and D employees.
At a number of venues, the council had to arrange for substitute invigilators because the WBSSC had terminated the services of the 775 secondary school teachers.
The teachers and other employees of government-aided schools were dismissed following high court orders, which held that their had been irregularities in their recruitments.
Group C and D employees assist the head of the institutions in marking the seat numbers in the exam halls, delivery of question papers and other work.
The HS council, before the start of the examinations on Tuesday, wrote to the district school inspectors to source additional personnel from “non-participating schools” (where the exams are not being held) to replace the sacked personnel.
The termination of Group D employees, in February, also affected the state secondary examination, Madhyamik, which started on February 23 and ended in early March.
A council official said the sacking of 785 Group C employees and 775 secondary school teachers in March meant a further drop in personnel, affecting the examination process.
“We arranged for the additional personnel from non-participating schools to meet the deficit in personnel arising out of the termination of teaching and non-teaching staff,” said council president Chiranjeeb Bhattacharya. “We have a wide pool of non-participating schools.”
A council official said each year they write to the DIs so they take steps in case there is any issue with the examination-related process.
“The problem we are facing this year resulted from the withdrawal of so many appointments, which is unusual. But that has been taken care of,” the official said.
Earlier, a division bench of the high court had upheld the termination of Group D employees and secondary school teachers.
An official of the council told The Telegraph: “We had to keep the backup ready because the void (resulting from the termination) has yet to be filled up (with fresh recruitments).”
This newspaper reported on Saturday that a CBI probe report submitted in the court of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the high court in September said that at the higher secondary level, a section of candidates’ marks in the selection test results, stored on the commission’s server, was not tallying with the responses captured on the OMR sheets.