But for the thousands of hapless students there seems to be no silver lining. There are three categories of students out of the 70,000 or so affected. Firstly, nearly 30,000 teachers who had passed out of PTTIs in 1995-96 are now working as teachers in primary schools. But their diploma has already been declared invalid.

The second class of students, about 25,000, are those who have completed the course and have earned certificates but have not got any jobs as the recruitment process of the government is on hold.

The third category of students are from the 2005-6 batch, numbering about 16,320, whose examination has been put on hold after the High Court order.

It’s been a deadlock situation. There are over 38,000 vacancies in primary schools but the state government is in a fix, as it can not recruit teachers who have passed out of the PTTIs.

While Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Union External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee assured the students months ago that some solution would be worked out, it is not yet in sight.

NCTE officials, meanwhile, insist that their job is providing training to teachers and they have no control over a court’s verdict. The state government evidently is not keen on a legal course having realised its weak grounds on the issue.