The Telegraph

Siliguri, March 15: Bengal school education minister Partha Dey and the teachers’ wing of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha will hold a meeting in Calcutta tomorrow to discuss its demands, but the union said its threat to abstain from supervising the Higher Secondary exams would be reconsidered depending on the outcome of the talks.

The invitation to the talks came after the Janmukti Secondary Teachers’ Organisation had announced that it would not evaluate the answer scripts of the Madhyamik candidates and boycott the invigilation of the Higher Secondary exams starting on March 17 to protest the government’s delay in fulfilling their demands.

The demands include the formation of an adhoc panel to recommend the regularisation of contract teachers, appointment of headmasters and the recognition and the upgrade of junior high schools in the Darjeeling hills.

The JSTO members did not collect the answer scripts of the Madhyamik candidates for the evaluation.

“The state school education minister, Partha Dey, wrote a letter to the JSTO on Friday, requesting them to abstain from any activity that might affect the interests of students,” said a senior official of the West Bengal Council for Higher Secondary Education. “The JSTO representatives replied on Saturday, asking the minister to convene a meeting to discuss the demands so that they could reconsider the decisions.”

A formal letter inviting the JSTO to the talks was today handed over to the union by the district magistrate of Darjeeling, Surendra Gupta.

The agitating teachers are, however, not ready to relent immediately. “I will lead a seven-member delegation to attend the meeting in Calcutta tomorrow,” said Bijay Pradhan, the JSTO general secretary. “It is good that the minister has listened to us. However, we cannot say if we will reconsider the decisions till the meeting concludes.”

With 48 hours left for the Higher Secondary exams to begin, officials of the council are keeping their fingers crossed. “We have come to know about the meeting and are hoping to hear that the JSTO has withdrawn its decision to refrain from the invigilation,” said Mukta Narjinari, the deputy secretary of the north Bengal regional office of the council.

A total of 5,802 candidates will appear for the Higher Secondary exams at five centres in the hills.

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