HRD Min asks State to rectify SSA recruitment mistakes

SHILLONG: The HRD Ministry has asked the State Government to fulfil demands of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) teachers and sought a report on the issue.
Aristotle C. Rymbai, president of the Meghalaya SSA School Association, said the Ministry, in its February 3 letter, asked the Government to rectify the SSA norms of creating regular posts under the Education department.
“The central rule says posts should be created under the state’s education department. But in Meghalaya, teachers were appointed under the State Implementation Society on contract basis. It also posted the 12,481 SSA teachers only in SSA-supported schools, which is also in violation of the central rule,” said Rymbai in a statement issued on Tuesday.
A central directive last year said, “No permanent posts shall be created under the SSA funds. Teachers’ posts shall be created by the State Government even where such posts are supported by SSA funding.”
The SSA teachers’ body had written to HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar last November seeking his intervention in regularising their jobs, difference in salary, conduct of teachers’ training for Diploma in Elementary Education for SSA teachers, construction of school building and additional classrooms, among others.
An HRD Ministry directive of 2014 to all states said that states should maintain unified teaching cadres and no separate SSA cadre is permissible as all teachers’ expenses are ultimately to be borne on the State or Union Territory.