SHILLONG, NOV 9: Over 4,000 teachers today boycotted the examination of the Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed), a two-year teachers’ training programme conducted by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) as a mark of protest against its style of functioning and the failure of the state government to intervene into the matter.
Under the banner of the Meghalaya Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Schools’ Association (MSSASA), aggrieved teachers also staged a black flag demonstration demanding that the examination be immediately revoked.
The examination for the first batch of D.El.Ed comprising of 4,300 teachers from all categories which include government, adhoc and SSA schools, was scheduled to start today till November 21.
Addressing reporters at the sidelines of the protest, MSSASA president Aristotle C Rymbai said, “We have decided to boycott the examination as a mark of protest against the NIOS asking the teachers to pay Rs 370 fees for appearing for the said examination.”
Alleging that there is a big communication gap between the headquarter and the regional office at Guwahati of the NIOS which has led to a lot of confusion, he said that the institute had failed to provide clarity on who should sit for examination.
“In fact what was conveyed to the association was that the teachers who have asked for re-correction of their papers need not sit for the examination except those who failed in the examination conducted earlier,” he said.
He also informed that this decision was based on the minutes of the meeting held on October last year.
It may be mentioned here, the association had also earlier staged several protests against the repeated anomalies in the results declared by the NIOS for three times – September 9, 2016, November 4, 2016 and June 22 this year.
Asked, he said, “Of the 4,000, there were still anomalies detected in the results of over 900 teachers,” adding “Instead of rectifying these anomalies, the teachers were served with hall ticket to sit again for the examination.”
Rymbai also informed that the decision to boycott the examination was also after the state government failed to intervene into the matter despite deadline served had expired on October 31.
Reacting to a query, the association president revealed that none of the 4,000 odd teachers have received the certificate that certified them as trained teachers.
Stating that a total of 7,822 teachers were enrolled for the training course with the NIOS, he said, “While the first batch are yet to get an error free results, the second batch whose training was supposed to commence since last year are yet to start till today.”
Asked, Rymbai said that the association has decided to direct their agitation against the failure of the state government from now onwards on ground that it has entered the agreement with the NIOS for training the teachers in the state.
“The state government should take full responsibility on the mess created by the NIOS which has affected the teachers to a great extent,” he said.
Referring to the Centre’s direction to all states to ensure its teachers are trained by 2019, failing which their services will be terminated, Rymbai warned that teachers’ services in the state are at stake if the ongoing problems faced by them is left unattended by the state government.
The association has also reiterated its demand to cancel the agreement signed with the NIOS.
By Our Reporter
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