A school with over 10,000 students in Murshidabad district appeared to be affected most by the Calcutta High Court's verdict that nullified the appointment of around 25,000 teachers at state-aided and sponsored schools.

The Arjunpur High School in Farakka had 60 teachers before the high court order on Monday. But only 24 teachers are left after 36 teachers' appointments were cancelled.

The school has classes from V to XII.

Sources said had it not been for the early summer vacation, there would have been chaos in managing the school with only 24 teachers.

“As the school is closed for summer vacation, major problems could be avoided. It is almost impossible to run a school of more than 10,000 students with only 24 teachers. We have already informed the higher authorities about the problem and we hope something will be done to resolve the issue,” said Md. Saharab Ali, the teacher-in-charge of the school, on Tuesday.

He has said as the school is located in a backward area, where bidi workers mostly live, steps should be initiated to ensure it is run properly.

“If the school is affected by the teacher shortage, the poor students will suffer. As the parents of the students cannot afford to send their wards to private schools, the number of school dropouts will increase immensely in the area. So, sending teachers to the school to fill the vacancies — in case the high court verdict is upheld in the apex court — should be a priority,” said a teacher at Arjunpur High School.

A few years ago, the school had 123 teachers. But the situation started changing after the state government had launched Utshasree — a scheme that allowed school teachers to get transferred near their homes — in August 2021.

After the scheme was launched, 79 teachers took transfer while only 16 teachers opted to join the Arjunpur school under the same scheme. “The school started struggling from that time as the number of teachers had come down to 60 from 123.... But now it is found that 36 of them had secured jobs from the 2016 SSC (School Service Commission) panel. As the entire panel of the 2016 SSC was cancelled, it is unfortunate that the school is now left with only 24 teachers,” said a teacher aware of the development.

The district inspector of secondary schools in Murshidabad, Amar Kumar Sil, declined comments.

Senior district officials said they would take up the matter with the education department.

The high court’s Monday verdict came up at a rally that chief minister Mamata Banerjee addressed in Birbhum on Tuesday.

“Our teachers and youths should not worry. Even if nobody else stands by them in these times of trouble, I will. We will fight this. Today, if any of the people who lost their jobs end up taking some extreme step, will the BJP take the responsibility?” asked Mamata.

“How will these schools get teachers now? Will the BJP or the RSS leaders go teach the children waiting there for their teachers?” she asked.

“In Bengal, they are using the excuse of legality to cancel recruitments made by us...."