Left Front chairman Biman Bose has asked the PTTI students unions to withdraw their protests and assured the students’ representatives that the government would absorb them in the vacant posts.

After the assurance, the students decided to suspend their agitation.

Earlier in the day, a delegation of PTTI students met Bose to ask him how the interest of the students who have undergone training will be preserved when the state government is bent on recruitment without a solution to the crisis. “Bose has accepted our demands and agreed that the interest of the students who have taken training needs to be taken care of,” said Pintu Parui, one of the student leaders who was part of the delegation.

Prabir Bose, state secretary of West Bengal Primary Teachers Training Student’s union, said it is a welcome proposal.

While the school education department is bent on going ahead with the recruitment of over 50,000 teachers in the state, the PTTI students who have completed one year of diploma will not be given any advantage as their degrees have been termed invalid by the Calcutta High Court.

In these circumstances the PTTI students cannot get any advantage in the recruitment process. Addressing the state legislative Assembly, School Education Minister Partha De said that legally the PTTI students cannot be given any advantage.

The minister suggested two ways by which the students can be taken in jobs. “Since they have undergone training for one year they will get ample opportunity to reflect it in the recruitment process. The second option is doing a bridge course for one year for students who have a Higher Secondary degree and with 50 per cent marks,” said Partha De.

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