West Bengal: Ensure classes are held regularly, Partha Chatterjee tells teachers’ body

The minister was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a conference of the ‘Paschimbanga Trinamool Prathamik Sikshak Samity’.

Coming down heavily on Left-backed primary teachers’ organisation, Chatterjee said, “Where were these protesters who are now hitting the streets with various demands, when the condition of primary teachers was worse in the tenure of the previous regime?”

He said since the TMC came to power in West Bengal, 73,000 teachers were recruited at the primary level and many para-teachers (contractual teachers at elementary level) were made permanent.

To a question about recruitment of primary teachers in 2019, he said, “We must rationalise the process of recruitment first by ascertaining the exact number of vacancies in (different state-run/state-aided) primary schools.”