Several headmasters and headmistresses in Bengal have been facing agitations and threats, overt and covert, from some outgoing Class X and XII students and their guardians who want these students’ Class IX and XI marks increased.
With the pandemic preventing written exams, the marks students have obtained in Classes IX and XI are set to heavily influence their Madhyamik and higher secondary results, respectively.
“Besides facing agitations, teachers are being threatened — even with murder — when they refuse to increase the marks unfairly,” said Chandan Kumar Maity, state secretary, Advanced Society for Headmasters and Headmistresses.
“Some students who did not take those school exams seriously now want their marks hiked, which is an unethical and illegal demand.”
The Society, an association of the heads of schools run or aided by the state government, has written to the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education seeking security for teachers.
Several teachers have also individually informed the board and the council, which have requested the district administrations to intervene.
“They (students and guardians) have been assaulting and threatening headmasters, squatting in front of their offices, abusing them. This can’t continue,” Maity, headmaster of the Krishnachandrapur High School in Mathurapur, South 24-Parganas, said.
“If the headmasters are forced to yield to pressure, it will send out a wrong message about the state’s education scene.”
On Thursday, around 60 outgoing Class XII students and their guardians gheraoed the headmaster of the Damra High School in Mohammedbazar, Birbhum, till late night demanding their Class XI marks be hiked.
Headmaster Tushar Mondal was released after police and the local block development officer intervened.
The same day, Prafulla Majumdar, headmaster of the Mahishbathan Manindranath High School in Cooch Behar, was gheraoed and allegedly abused by students and their guardians.
The agitators demanded “grace” marks in the Class XI final exams and allegedly threatened Majumdar with “dire consequences” if he didn’t comply. Majumdar has written to education department officials about the threats.
Sources said the reports of agitations and harassment began arriving after the secondary board and higher secondary council announced a fortnight ago that the Class IX and XI marks would get substantial weightage in the Madhyamik and higher secondary board results, respectively.
Several headmasters alleged the threats had deterred them from lodging police complaints.
“The guardians and the students have been trying to justify their indefensible demand with a strange logic. They claim the students would have done brilliantly in those exams had they taken them seriously,” the headmaster of a Birbhum school said, seeking anonymity.
“They say they did not take those exams seriously because nobody knew at the time that the marks obtained would play a part in the board results.”
Sources said that most of the higher secondary schools had already sent the Class XI marks to the council, as instructed. They cannot now increase or decrease the marks even if they want to.
“It’s simply not possible to increase the marks now as we have already sent the marks to the council,” said Mondal, the Damra High School headmaster.
“I was gheraoed till 11pm on Thursday. I shall write to the council about the students’ demand, as advised by the local administration.”
Additional reporting by Subhasish Chaudhuri
