SHILLONG: The Meghalaya Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Schools Association (MSSASA) central body has petitioned the Director of School Education and Literacy and State Project Director, SSA-SEMAM, Ambrose Marak, for implementation of mandatory norms of SSA and RTE 2009.
The teachers’ body also wrote to him about the shifting of all posts of primary and upper primary teachers from SEMAM (SSA) State Implementation Society to State education departments on regular basis.
With regard to the implementation of the norms of SSA and RTE 2009, the body said, “It is the policy decision of the Government. All SSA teachers are appointed by the School Management Committee.
“The State Education Mission Authority of Meghalaya (SEMAM), SSA, is not involved in the process of recruitment, appointment or engagement of these teachers,” MSSASA pointed out and said it was against the norms of SSA-RTE 2009 and framework and guidelines of SSA.
“The Government of Meghalaya had committed this mistake right from the beginning of implementation the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) Flagship Programme in Meghalaya since 2004 and continued committing the same mistake till date,” it added.
MSSASA said the government allowed creation of these posts under State SSA Implementation Society known as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan State Education Mission Authority Meghalaya (SSA-SEMAM) on contractual basis for whom different service arrangements have been spelt out and the 5,766 primary and 6,715 upper primary SSA teachers were posted only in SSA-supported schools in Meghalaya. “There is an urgent need for the creation of the said posts under the Education Department after shifting from State implementation Society as per mandatory norms of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Right to Education Act 2009, RTE,” the statement said.
Though the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Planning Accreditation Board (PAB) directed all states/UTs to unify teaching cadres, the state elementary education department did not rectify the anomalies and it is still appointing teachers under SSA on contract basis.
“Now we are requesting to rectify those anomalies immediately so, that there will be no discrimination arise further in salary and service condition and also in the selection process of teachers. There should be uniformity in selection procedure where as all teachers ultimately borne on state,” the statement read.
MSSASA has threatened to continue their movement in a democratic way if the education department does not take up appropriate steps.
The MSSASA stated that the matter should be initiated in time bound manner taking not more than two months.