The West Bengal School Education Department has ordered district authorities to take departmental and, where applicable, legal action against primary-school teachers who remain absent without following prescribed leave procedures, citing disruption to regular teaching in government primary schools.
The directive was issued through a notification from Bikash Bhavan on September 21 and has been ordered for immediate implementation across the state. District Inspectors of Primary Schools have been instructed to review pending leave applications and cases in which teachers were absent without prior approval.
Under the order, district authorities must examine the circumstances of each absence before deciding whether action is warranted. Leave may be sanctioned retrospectively if a teacher can establish a genuine or emergency reason for remaining away without prior permission.
However, the department has said leave should not be sanctioned where a teacher is unable to provide a valid reason or where the absence is found to have been deliberate. In such cases, disciplinary proceedings are to be initiated, with legal action wherever applicable.
The directive also asks district authorities to examine cases involving teachers who allegedly remained absent while participating in various programmes and movements, including activities linked to dearness allowance and the Teacher Eligibility Test. Such participation, according to the instructions, must be assessed alongside whether leave was obtained in accordance with applicable rules.
The order places responsibility on District Inspectors of Primary Schools to scrutinise individual cases rather than treat all unauthorised absences uniformly. This means that emergency circumstances and deliberate non-attendance are expected to be distinguished during the review process.
The department has linked the measure to the need to maintain regular teacher attendance and preserve the teaching-learning environment in government primary schools. For children dependent on state-run schools, teacher availability is a basic operational requirement: prolonged absence can affect classroom continuity, lesson delivery and the functioning of schools that may have limited staff strength.
The directive also creates a reporting obligation for every district. Authorities have been asked to prepare detailed reports covering the number of pending leave cases, instances of unauthorised absence and the action taken after the latest instructions. These reports must be submitted to the office of the School Education Commissioner at Bikash Bhavan within 30 days.
The notification therefore combines retrospective scrutiny of existing cases with a statewide administrative reporting process. Its implementation will depend on how district inspectors assess reasons for absence, process pending leave applications and record disciplinary action within the prescribed reporting period.
