Education minister Bratya Basu on Wednesday asked why the protesters who are demanding that they be recruited as teachers in primary schools without having to appear in an interview “are not moving Calcutta High Court” for such a directive.
The protesters have been blocking a key artery in Salt Lake’s Karunamoyee since Monday to press for their demand.
The primary education board has moved the high court against the demonstration outside its office, which has allegedly come in the way of running the office, said an official of the board.
“Instead of protesting on the street, why are they not moving the high court to get what they call justice? I will continue to say that in keeping with what the primary education board president has said, they should appear in the interview, instead of taking recourse to a wrongful movement,” Basu said, referring to a statement by Goutam Paul, chairman of the committee set up by the government to run the primary education board.
“How can someone be recruited on the basis of an emotional quotient?” the minister asked at a news conference in Dum Dum, which he represents in the Assembly. “The board president said yesterday that what the protesters are demanding is unfair. The demand lacks reason. We are relying on the version the board has come up with….The movement is getting political patronage. Still, I will say, we are sympathetic towards the protesters,” Basu said.
“The board is an autonomous body. We don’t want to say anything other than what it has already said.”
The protesters had written the Teachers’ Eligibility Test(TET) in 2015 for recruitment in government-aided primary schools but their names did not appear in a panel drawn up on the basis of scores after their interviews.
The protesters had appeared in at least one interview and many in two interviews.
They are against the board’s decision asking them to appear in yet another interview to be recruited as teacher. Paul, chairman of the adhoc committee running the board, had said on Tuesday that recruiting the protesters without interviewing them will be in violation of the law.
On Wednesday, he said TET 2014 (the exam was held in 2015) candidates were free to move court if they felt they were being deprived.
“Has the court said that all teachers have been appointed in violation of the law? If the appointments are proven to be illegal, the court and the government will take action. A candidate will not be recruited unless he or she appears in an interview,” Paul said on Wednesday.
The board had asked the district primary school councils for information on appointment of teachers because the process was under the Enforcement Directorate’s scanner.
The board had also asked for records on the TET-2014 candidates who were recruited so they could be submitted to the CBI.
“If the appointments are found to be illegal, those will be terminated. If the protesters appear in the interview, they could be appointed in the vacant posts,” the official said.
