They have not been directly affected by the Supreme Court’s recent sacking of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff in government-aided schools.

But the plight of their colleagues brought them to Calcutta on Wednesday.

Many teachers who still have their jobs spent Wednesday at the Esplanade protest venue with those who had lost theirs.

Both the affected and the unaffected were eagerly looking forward to what the Supreme Court would say on Thursday. The apex court is scheduled to hear a miscellaneous application filed by the state secondary education board.

The board has requested the court to let the deserving teachers continue till the completion of the fresh recruitment process or the academic year that began in January.

The board said that if the court did not offer a breather, Bengal’s entire education system would collapse.

The teachers who came to the Y-channel in solidarity included Dhriti Ghoshal and Mamata Maiti.

They had got their jobs based on a test conducted by the school service commission in 2010.

Those who lost their jobs wrote the same test in 2016.

The Supreme Court scrapped the jobs of both tainted and those “found to be
not specifically tainted” because it felt the entire 2016 recruitment process was “vitiated”.

Dhriti teaches chemistry at the higher secondary level of RR Govt Sponsored Institution in Gosaba, South 24-Parganas. Mamata teaches maths at the secondary level of the school.

They came to be with Buddhadev Sardar, 34, a geography teacher from their school, who lost his job with the Supreme Court’s April 3 order.

“Buddhadev is an extremely capable teacher. He is loved by his students. He holds online classes on his own beyond class hours to help students who need it,” said Dhriti.

“We have taught with him for over five years. The entire school is missing him. We could not let him suffer alone. The school wants him reinstated,” said Mamata.

Buddhadev said he had also got the job of a primary school teacher in North 24-Parganas in 2022. That appointment was based on a selection test held in 2009.

“Because of a court case, the jobs were finally offered in 2022. As I had already been selected at the secondary level, I did not opt for the primary teacher’s job,” Buddhadev said.

Buddhadev, who studied MSc at Calcutta University’s Ballygunge Science College, said his while family depended on what he earned as a
teacher.

“The state government has not stopped salaries so far. But what if the review petition that the state government is planning to file before the Supreme Court is rejected?” asked Buddhadev.

Last week, the state said it was seeking legal advice before filing a review petition.

Dhriti and Mamata said they also came to show solidarity with another sacked teacher who used to teach in a school adjacent to theirs.

“Out of the 10 teachers in her school, nine have lost their jobs. Our jobs are unaffected. But we cannot forget these aggrieved teachers in their hour of crisis. Many of them used to board the same train with us,” said Dhirti.