-Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)

West Bengal’s stop-go government school teacher recruitment process stretching back to 2015 ,which has been subject to continuous street demonstrations, court injunctions and sporadic appointments — as regularly reported by your correspondent — came to a head on July 22-23 when the Enforcement Directorate, a financial frauds investigation unit of the BJP-controlled Central government, raided the residences of Partha Chatterjee and his close aide cinema actress Arpita Mukherjee and discovered a cash mountain of Rs.21 crore. Subsequent raids on 15 properties including three houses owned by Chatterjee and four upscale apartments owned by Mukherjee unearthed another Rs.50 crore in cash and title deeds of 12 properties.

A heavyweight of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) government and close confidant of three-term chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Partha Chatterjee was industries minister of the TMC government which trounced the BJP in the state legislative election of 2020. More significantly, Chatterjee (now suspended from party membership) was West Bengal’s education minister for seven years (2014-21) when 50,000 primary teachers — from 2.8 million applicants who wrote the TET (teacher eligibility test) in 2015 and 2016 — were belatedly recruited and appointed in government schools earlier this year.

Teaching jobs in government schools (and higher education institutions) which are high wage islands paying salaries benchmarked with pay scales decreed by Pay Commissions appointed by the Central government to ring-fence government employees against inflation, are highly prized countrywide as they offer life-long security with minimal accountability, relatively high salaries (compared to private schools), healthcare coverage and three vacations per year. Government school jobs are especially prized in West Bengal (pop.91 million) which following 34 years (1977-2011) of uninterrupted rule by a CPM (Communist Party of India-Marxist) Left Front coalition, experienced continuous flight of capital and investment famine which have burdened the state with mass unemployment.

According to ED sources, money and other valuables recovered from Chatterjee and Arpita’s properties were accumulated bribes collected from families desperate for sons and daughters to be employed as teachers and clerks in state government-run schools. Chatterjee reportedly demanded — and bagged — bribes of Rs.10 lakh for Group C and D jobs; Rs.10-12 lakh for primary teachers’ jobs; Rs.15-18 lakh for secondary and Rs.18-20 lakh for higher secondary teachers’ posts. The total amount extracted from desperate job-seekers is estimated at Rs.400-500 crore.

As the probe into the mega scam unfolds, the jobs of 43,000 teachers recruited by the education ministry in 2016 for having cleared TET 2014 are at stake. In fact, the appointment of 269 teachers has already been cancelled because of tainted recruitment. The CBI is reportedly examining documents related to these appointments.

Meanwhile with teacher recruitment having stagnated since the TMC government was elected for the first time in 2011, thousands of educated unemployed youth statewide who have written TET but whose results have been stayed by the courts, have lost hope and have accepted low-paid jobs in the private sector or are working as private tutors. Moreover, because of rising teacher vacancies, the average teacher-pupil ratio in government schools has risen to 1:59 against the 1:35 prescribed by the RTE Act, 2009. Inevitably, children’s learning outcomes have also plunged. According to the latest (2021) Annual Status of Education Report of the Pratham Education Foundation, the percentage of class VII children in state government schools who cannot read and comprehend class III textbooks has risen from 23.7 percent in 2014 to 31.7 percent in 2021.

Comments Dr. Achin Chakraborty, director of the Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata: “The teacher recruitment scam is a huge blot on the TMC government and has made a mockery of chief minister Banerjee’s famous electoral promise of paribartan (change) in the education sector. The damage done by this scam to public school education will jeopardise the future of 23 million students struggling to pull themselves out of poverty, and is indicative of this government’s indifference to children struggling in government schools.”
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose (‘the more things change, the more they remain the same’).

Also Read: West Bengal: Irreparable damage