SHILLONG, SEPT 3: The Meghalaya Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Schools’ Association (MSSASA) has demanded the state government to consider merging the SSA teachers under the education department while implementing the much-awaited State Education Policy.
“We reiterated our demand that the state government should consider while implementing the education policy to bring the 12541 teachers working in SSA funded schools under the education department,” MSSASA president Aristotle C Rymbai said here on Monday.
He said that the association in its suggestions submitted to the education minister Lahkmen Rymbui on May 18, had urged the state government to streamline the norms related to the recruitment of teachers.
Rymbai said that it is only in Meghalaya where teachers are being recruited by the respective School Managing Committees (SMCs) and their services being looked after by a society known as the State Education Mission Authority Meghalaya (SEMAM).
According to him, this was a big mistake made by the government while implementing the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which as per sanction order clearly states that “teacher posts shall be created by the state government even where such posts are supported by SSA funding”.
“The reason why we suggest the government to ensure the services of teachers are brought under education department is because the SSA scheme has ended with the launching of new integrated scheme Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan by the Centre,” he said.
Under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, Rymbai said the Centre has fixed salary at Rs 15,000 for lower primary teachers and Rs 20,000 for upper primary teachers adding in addition, the scheme will only be implemented till 2020.
“Moreover, the Centre also made it clear that financial support to the state would also be as per availability of funds. Due to this, we are also apprehensive that if the scheme ends, it would not only affect 12,541 teachers but their families as well,” he said.
Further, the MSSASA president said that teachers in other states are not suffering as they are under their respective state education departments where there is regular flow in salary payment unlike Meghalaya which is totally depending on the Central funds.
Asked, Rymbai informed that education minister during a meeting with the delegation of the association on July 6 had assured that the government would study the demands put forth by it.
“He (Lahkmen) also informed that the Cabinet is also likely to approve the state education policy within September 15,” he said.
Further, Rymbai informed that the chief minister Conrad K Sangma in a meeting with the association on July 24 had assured that the state government is not keen to reduce the existing salary of Rs 19,044 and Rs 20,493 paid to SSA lower and upper primary teachers.
“He (CM) assured that the state government would find out ways and means to address this matter,” he said.
He said based on the suggestions of the association, the state government had proposed the existing salary in the MHRD’s Project Approval Board (PAB) meeting held earlier this year, which however approved only Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000 as salary for LP and UP teachers.
Earlier, MSSASA has also asked the SSA teachers to refrain from taking part in any agitations on the occasion of the Teachers’ Day celebrations in the state.
This was following the recent announcement of the All Meghalaya SSA School Teachers’ Association (AMSSASTA) to boycott the Teachers’ Day celebration by holding a sit-in-demonstration to protest against the state government’s failure to release their salaries.
On this, Rymbai said that the association do not support the proposed agitation by the AMSSASTA in view that the state government is working hard to address the problems faced by the SSA teachers.
“It is also because we have decided to wait for the decision of the Cabinet with regards to the state education policy. We are also waiting for a notification to be issued by the government after which we will take a call on our future course of action,” he said.
Meanwhile, MSSASA president also informed that with the launching of the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, the scheme name has been categorized as elementary education, secondary education and teacher education.
The three erstwhile centrally sponsored schemes i.e. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE) has been subsumed under the Samagra Shiksha with effect from this year.
By Our Reporter
+ There are no comments
Add yours