TURA, Oct 25: Leaders of the All Garo Hills Non-Adhoc Secondary and Higher Secondary School Teachers Association have called on Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma seeking his intervention over the lack of sanction of grant-in-aid to teachers of all departments of the non-ad hoc schools.
The president of the association, teacher and principal of Sidhakandi Higher Secondary School, Zinnal Hoque Probhany, and his association secretary met the chief minister and apprised him of their grievances.
“We met the chief minister and submitted a reminder of our demands to him because earlier we had met with the education minister and other cabinet ministers and even bureaucrats. He gave us a patient hearing and assured us to take up the matter,” said Probhany.
According to the association president, there are 154 non-secondary schools and 100 upgraded higher secondary schools from the year 2001 to 2016 but in all of the 154 secondary schools, they are getting only science grant from the Government of Meghalaya while no other funds are sanctioned for the rest of the teachers working in these schools. This, according to the association, hampers the teachers’ lives and their profession as a whole, which is why they are demanding that every individual engaged in imparting education for the children ought to be given their due salaries.
Mass protest in Williamnagar
Meanwhile, irked by the Meghalaya government’s repeated denial to fulfil their demands for the release of four months’ pending salaries, SSA school teachers from Garo Hills under the aegis of the All Garo Hills SSA School Teachers’ Association on Monday announced a mass protest to be held on October 26 in Williamnagar.
The salaries of the teachers have been pending for the months of June till September. “We are really disappointed with the government. We have made repeated demands and submitted a number of memorandums to get our salaries but all our demands have fallen on deaf ears. We have had enough and therefore decided to go ahead with the protest,” Secretary of the association B Ch Marak said.
According to a statement issued in this regard, the protest rally would take place at the Rongrenggre Government Higher Secondary School Playground followed by a protest march via the Williamnagar Main market to the Deputy Commissioner’s Office.
