Teachers resume protest in West Bengal, demanding their lost jobs back

Protesting teachers in West Bengal resumed their agitation on Friday outside the headquarters of the state’s Education Department in Salt Lake, Kolkata. This came a day after violent clashes between the teachers and police on Thursday.

 

Hundreds of teachers lost their jobs after a recent order from the Supreme Court. The top court cited various irregularities in the recruitment process as their main ground of judgement.

 

However, unhappy with the court’s decision, the affected teacher staff continued their protest since then against the West Bengal state government.

 

A number of protestors who were injured during Thursday’s clashes came back to the protest site and continued demonstrating, according to a member of the Deserving Teachers’ Rights Forum.

 

 

What are West Bengal teachers demanding?

 

The protesting teachers have demanded permanent reinstatement to their jobs. They said they should not be asked to take a fresh recruitment exam, as they had already cleared the 2016 School Service Commission (SSC) test.

 

Several protesters said that many forum members stayed outside Bikash Bhavan all night, continuing their sit-in. “We have urged thousands of teachers, civil society members and others to assemble outside the Bikash Bhavan at 3 pm on Friday to intensify our protest. We demand immediate talks with the chief minister,” said Chinmoy Mondal, a forum leader and protesting teacher. 

 

Violent clashes, 100 injured

 

Violent clashes between protesting school teachers and the police turned the area around Bikash Bhavan into a virtual battlefield on Thursday evening. According to eyewitnesses, many teachers, including several women, were injured as the police crackdown lasted for over an hour. One of the protesters, Mehboob Mondal, claimed that around 100 teachers were injured in total.

 

Despite repeated requests to let stranded education department employees leave, the protesters refused to end their demonstration, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Bidhannagar) Anish Sarkar.

 

What is the West Bengal teachers’ hiring scam?

 

The developments came in the wake of a Supreme Court verdict on April 3, which upheld a prior Calcutta High Court decision dated April 22, 2024, nullifying the appointments of 25,752 teachers and non-teaching staff in government-run schools. These appointments were made through the 2016 recruitment drive conducted by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC). 

 

The Supreme Court bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar, concurred with the High Court’s conclusion that the recruitment process was deeply flawed, marked by irregularities and corruption.

 

The judiciary at both levels directed the cancellation of the entire list of appointees after the WBSSC and the state government failed to identify and separate those involved in the alleged malpractices from those who were not.

 

The large-scale annulment, affecting nearly 25,000 staff members across 19,000 schools, has triggered widespread concern about the impact on the functioning of educational institutions in West Bengal.