SHILLONG, Sep 27: The Federation of Ad-hoc School Teachers of Meghalaya hoped that the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) Government would upgrade the services of 7,082 from the ad hoc system to the deficit pattern by November.
“We understand the government will not be able to grant our demand of upgrading the services of the ad hoc teachers to the deficit system due to financial crisis. We have proposed an upgrade to deficit pattern instead,” President of the organisation Kenneth Shadap told reporters after a meeting with Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma here on Monday.
Teachers under the deficit pattern will not get all the allowances those under the deficit system are entitled to.
“But we will settle for the deficit pattern. I hope the government will not force us to hit the streets with our demands,” Shadap said.
He said a total of 7,082 teachers in lower primary, upper primary, secondary and higher secondary schools will benefit if the government agrees to their demand.
All these teachers have already completed 25 years of service, he added.
Shadap said the delay in fulfilling the teachers’ demand was nothing new.
“The NPP-led government is facing several issues but we are thankful that the CM spared his time to listen to our grievances and demand,” he said.
He also said Conrad Sangma apologised for not being able to meet them for the past year. “We told him that we would like to know of the government’s decision by October. He requested us to give time till November,” Shadap said.
He said the Chief Minister assured to review the financial position of the government for fulfilling their demand.
“We will again meet in November to finalise whatever has been discussed. We insisted that it should be done soon because of an upcoming bye-election and even the Assembly elections are not too far away,” Shadap said.
He added that Sangma gave the teachers the confidence that their demand would be met this time.
