27/04/2025
To the Fellow Students and Youth of West Bengal,
On April 3, 2025, the Supreme Court of India upheld the Calcutta High Court’s verdict (dated April 22, 2024) regarding the 2016 School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam in West Bengal, ordering the termination of 25,753 teachers due to serious irregularities in the recruitment process. It must be noted that the court and investigating authorities identified only around 5,000 teachers as "tainted," yet invalidated the entire recruitment panel on this basis. As a result, over 25,000 teachers—mostly from lower- and middle-income backgrounds, who have served honorably for nearly seven years—have been rendered jobless overnight.
This situation raises urgent questions:
When investigative agencies and the court lack evidence that all recruited teachers obtained their jobs through wrongful means, can the entire panel be discarded merely because some recruitments were illegitimate?
What happens to those who are not tainted? The judgment directs them to undergo a fresh recruitment process. However, most have been detached from competitive exam preparation for seven years. How can they reasonably be expected to compete again?
Above all, why should innocent teachers reappear for exams or interviews if they are not guilty? Many have families, children, loans, and responsibilities. Who will take accountability for their sudden unemployment?
We know it was the responsibility of the government and investigative agencies to clearly distinguish the tainted from the untainted and ensure only the guilty faced legal consequences. Yet, they failed. The SSC and the government were also responsible for conducting a fair recruitment process, but no judgment has held them accountable for this systemic failure.
A scam is always, at minimum, bipartite. Someone bribes to get a job only when someone else accepts it—meaning those complicit must be part of the recruiting system: SSC officials, ruling party members, or government authorities. In fact, such large-scale corruption is impossible without the direct involvement of the political establishment. So we ask: Why have none of the powerful masterminds been punished? No resignations, no arrests—only the common people suffer while the beneficiaries walk free!
This mass dismissal is not just an administrative failure—it signifies the collapse of West Bengal’s education infrastructure. Here’s how the crisis will unfold:
Unfillable Vacancies: Tens of thousands of schools, especially in rural and underdeveloped areas, are already strained. With thousands of teachers removed, some schools may be left with just one or two staff. Core subjects like science, math, history, and languages could go untaught for months—or even years.
Disrupted Education for Students: Students have lost trained educators mid-academic year. Class 10 and 12 students are stranded months before board exams. Many may now have to travel miles to other schools—or drop out entirely.
Shattered Morale and Mass Exodus from Teaching: Aspiring teachers witnessing this horror will see a clear message: Even if you clear exams and serve honestly, you are disposable. The best minds will avoid public service, making teaching more precarious and less professional.
Privatization of Education: As public education crumbles, private players—schools, coaching centers, ed-tech companies—will take over. Education will become a business, accessible only to the rich, while the poor and marginalized are abandoned.
End of Social Mobility: Teaching was one of the few stable government careers for working-class and lower-middle-class youth, including first-generation learners. This mass termination has broken that ladder of mobility. The message is clear: There is no place for you here—not in public education, not in public service.
We strongly condemn the police violence against peaceful protesters, including terminated teachers and SSC candidates. In a democracy, demands for justice should be met with dialogue, not lathis. Yet, the state responded with brutality—beating, detaining, and humiliating protesters. Women were dragged, youth were injured, and movement leaders were arrested. We must ask: Is this government only capable of rallies and empty promises? Why does it appear only with batons and barricades, never with accountability?
In light of this crisis, we, the Science Education Group (SEG), a student collective from IIT Kharagpur, demand:
Immediate reinstatement of all terminated educators, with full payment of due salaries and benefits.
A transparent, fair, and independent review to identify genuine appointees.
Immediate resignation of the administrative heads of the Govt. Of WB, and its School Education Department, and the SSC.
A criminal probe into the entire political and bureaucratic network behind the scam.
A public commitment to restore and strengthen public education, with full recruitment for existing vacancies.
An immediate end to police repression and action against those responsible for the lathicharge.
This is not just about 25,000 jobs. It is about the future of public education in West Bengal—whether it will serve all or only a privileged few. It is about whether we will let the powerful escape while the powerless suffer. It is about whether we will allow schools to become empty buildings and dreams to become unaffordable.
We call upon all teachers, students, parents, and allies to join this struggle. This is not just a legal crisis—it is a moral, political, and generational moment.
Public education is a right!
Corruption must end!
Justice must be for all!
Science Education Group, IIT Kharagpur
[email protected] | | facebook.com/segiitkgp
