The indefinite hunger-strike by 400 teachers on the make since 28 February is symptomatic of the malaise that afflicts the recruitment of teachers in West Bengal. The fast must, therefore, be viewed in the wider perspective. They had cleared the School Service Commission exam in 2017 ~ the results were notified on 26 October of that year ~ but are yet to be recommended for appointment. This lends a new dimension to the chaos in school education, one that can be contextualised with logistical requirements on the day of the exam and the issue of appointment letters, as often as not to flunked candidates whose singular claim to “merit’ is loyalty to the Trinamul Congress. The inherent contradiction of granting appointments to the failed is yet to be addressed by the school education department. Not that party affiliation was not a criterion during CPI-M rule; the present dispensation appears to have finetuned the terms of engagement. Both sides are involved in the academic fiddle from the primary to the postgraduate levels, not to forget the controversy over trained teachers. Given the huge number of vacancies in schools, both parties must share the blame for impeding the search of learning. Wasn’t the exam held close to two years ago to fill the vacancies across the state? What could the reason for the feet-dragging be? The latest argument that has been proffered is as cogent as it has been conveniently timed ~ the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) on the eve of the Lok Sabha election precludes the issue of appointment letters. The fact remains that the MCC came into force early this month… one and a half years after the results were announced! The timegap renders the alibi unconvincing.

Mamata Banerjee was remarkably sensitive to the issue on Wednesday when she visited the fasting candidates with education minister Partha Chatterjee in tow. It is a measure of the overwhelming frustration that her appeal to the successful candidates to call off the hunger-strike was immediately turned down. The signal emitted in the immediate aftermath of Miss Banerjee’s intervention has served to deepen the uncertainty ~ “We are not convinced by her verbal assurance. We will continue with the protest till 3 April when the Prime Minister is scheduled to hold a rally in the city.” In consequence, the Chief Minister has failed to stave off a further escalation of the crisis and crucially so in the season of elections. There is little doubt that her appeal was embedded in the anxiety not to make the waters murkier before the first phase of the election in West Bengal. In the net, the Chief Minister has afforded the Bharatiya Janata Party almost a readymade campaign plank on an issue that bears on one of the primary indices of welfare ~ education.