SSA teachers’ salary likely by March

SHILLONG: The state government has said it will pay three months’ salary of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) teachers by this month.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma assured the delegation of Meghalaya SSA Schools Association teachers that met him on Wednesday.
The salary of SSA teachers had been irregular for several months and this time, payment to around 12,541 SSA teachers in 2,907 lower primary and 2,232 upper primary schools across the state is due since November 2018.
“The total amount required to clear the pending salary will be approximately Rs 27 crore per month… the chief minister told the delegation that the state government will pay SSA teachers from the state exchequer within this month and the matter has been processed,” HM Marbaniang, general secretary of the association, told reporters after the meeting.
Arrears from July 2016 to February 2017 are also pending and the amount is approximately Rs 54 crore.
The delegation also told Sangma about the need for streamlining the existing categories of schools and classifying them into government, government aided, partially aided and private school as per the Meghalaya state education policy.
MSSASA president Aristotle C Rymbai said in a statement issued on Thursday, “Due to various issues, SSA teachers have been deprived of sleep and peace of mind especially at this point of time when parents have to pay school fees for their children. If this continues for another one to two months, it will harm the quality of schooling in Meghalaya’’
“Moreover, about 95 percent of SSA teachers have no other means of income,” he added.
Last September, the association had served a notice to the government for release of pending salary. After the Centre reduced fund for SSA teachers, the state is facing additional burden of paying their salary.