Govt to release SSA teachers’ salary by next week

SHILLONG, MAY 17: Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma on Wednesday assured a delegation of the Meghalaya SSA Schools’ Association (MSSASA) that the salary of the SSA teachers for the month of March will be released by next week.

“He (Rakkam) informed us that the first instalment for this financial year 2022-23, the government of India will be sending probably by the end of June or first week of July. Apart from that the government has arranged from the Corpus fund to pay the salary of SSA teachers. Probably by next week, the salary for the month of March (amounting to Rs 26-27 crore) will be released to all SSA teachers,” MSSASA president Aristotle C Rymbai told reporters after meeting the minister.

Rymbai said that delegation has also expressed concern over delay to appoint the chairman and members of the Meghalaya State Education Commission to which the minister said that he would soon review the matter with the select committee which is tasked with the responsibility of shortlisting the names for appointment of chairman and members of the commission.

He said the issue related to the appointment of teachers in the SSA schools was also raised during the meeting since the posts are lying vacant for almost two years and this has affected the students.

“On this, the minister has informed that the government is already in the process to identify those schools with single-digit or zero enrolment of students also those schools with high enrolment of students before taking a decision on the matter,” he added.

With regards to the demand for regularization of services of SSA teachers in the state, Rymbai said the minister has assured that the government is in the process of finding ways and means to address this issue and very soon will call the MSSASA for further discussion on this.

He however admitted that the delegation is aware of the view of the state government where it has already expressed its inability to regularise the services of the SSA teachers due to financial constraint.

“We have seen what is the view of the government so today the education minister informed us that other states in the country are doing what they are doing, they appoint the SSA teachers in existing government schools whereas in Meghalaya they are doing otherwise. So now the government is in the process of correcting this mistake. This is a long pending issue since the implementation of the SSA programme in Meghalaya, they have committed a mistake,” he said.

On the demand for salary enhancement, the MSSASA president said, “There will be financial burden but the government will find ways and means how to tackle this problem so we leave it to the wisdom of the government.” According to him, enhancing the salary of the SSA teachers is the sole responsibility of the state government.

By Our Reporter