SHILLONG: Irked at the delay on the part of the State Government to include deficit teachers under the 5th Pay Commission beneficiaries, the deficit schools teachers in the state have decided agitate from Monday next.
Khasi Jaintia Deficit School Teachers Association (KJDSTA) and the Garo Hills Deficit School teachers’ and Employees’ Association (GHDSTEA) will begin their first phase of agitations by wearing of black arm bands from Monday.
KJDSTA president, ED Nongsiang on Thursday told newsmen said that the deficit teachers throughout the state would wear black arms on Monday and Tuesday and it will be followed by a public rally on June 6 at Madan Iewrynghep.
“If there is still no response from the Government to our demands, we will announce our next phase of intensified agitations during the public rally , “ Nongsiang said.
The decision to call for agitations was taken during the Action Committee meeting of the two Associations on Wednesday.
When asked about the financial implications for implementing the new pay scale, Nongsiang said that they were not very sure with the financial implications even though all the deficit schools have submitted their details on the financial implications to the Directorate of Higher and Technical Education.
He also said that as per information available with them, the Directorate had already submitted the financial implications to the Government adding the matter now is pending with the Government.
Replying to a query, Nongsiang said that the previous government should have implemented the new pay scale for the deficit school teachers along with other Government employees.
Nongsiang lamented that the teachers always have to beg for their rights and the attitude of the government clearly reflects that the government was not putting a priority on development of education in the State.
“The teachers would not have to go to the street if the Government was serious to address their grievances,” he said.
On the other hand, Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma said that he did not see any reason for teachers to resort to agitation.
“ It is just a technical delay in terms of the department making sure that the calculations are in place,” Sangma told reporters.
Sangma told media persons that last time when they had the meeting on first week of May, they were supposed to have cabinet meeting on May 8-9 and he intended to take up the issue on that meeting but sadly the education department was very busy due to many issues plaguing the department.
“ They ( Education department ) were not able to compile the necessary information as it is a massive calculation,” he said, adding that Cabinet is waiting for that report to come in and as soon as report comes in , Cabinet will take the decision.
“Last time department could not submit the report because that education department today has to deal with a CBI inquiry and officials are busy with documentations and other issues,” he said.
Asserting that there are no problem regarding the demands of the deficit teachers, he said that it was a procedural delay and the government knows what teachers want and government has asked the department to sent the report which is taking time
When asked if he would appeal to the deficit teachers to call of their agitations, Sangma replied in positive saying there was a misunderstanding and teachers might feel that the Government was sitting on it but there was no such thing and it was only procedural delay simply because the exercise was so massive and department was really over burdened.
“May be it is my fault that I said we would do it within 10 days because if I had told them one month, it would have been taken by them as procrastination. But I am sure, I did not realize education department was over burdened. I want to assure to the teachers that we are serious about their demand and we are going to take this up and they should continue with their work,” the Chief Minister added.