SHILLONG, Nov 15: The deficit school teachers in Meghalaya have placed a list of demands before the state government. The demands include pension and retirement benefits for the deficit teachers and death-cum-retirement gratuity (DCRG) at par with the government employees.
The members of the Khasi-Jaintia Deficit School Teachers’ Association (KJDSTA) and the Garo Hills Deficit School Teachers and Employees’ Association (GHDSTEA) place their demands during a meeting with Additional Chief Secretary, DP Wahlang, Director of School Education and Literacy, Ambrose CH Marak and other officials of the Education department here on Monday.
KJDSTA president, Kular Khongjirem told reporters after the meeting that they had impressed upon the government to implement the pension and retirement benefits that the teachers have been deprived of even after 34-40 years of service.
But the senior government officials did not give any commitment to this demand since they will need to take it up with the government, he said.
Khongjirem said the state government had raised the DCRG benefits for the government employees to Rs 10 lakh awarded by the 5th Pay Commission.
“But the DCRG benefit for the teachers is only Rs 3.5 lakh, which the government employees received after the 3rd Pay Commission award. The government gave positive feedback on this matter,” he said.
Khongjirem said they had also demanded medical reimbursement for the deficit teachers if they go for treatment. “Many teachers who died as they could not afford treatment,” he added.
The KJDSTA president also said they had demanded the implementation of the Assured Career Progressive Scheme (ACPS) since many deficit teachers teaching in institutions run by religious minorities do not get promoted to the post of principal, which is reserved.
“We also underlined the need for uniform service rules for all deficit teachers. The service rules should not be different from one school to another,” Khongjirem said.
Among the other demands was maternity leave for the deficit teachers.
Khongjirem rued the lack of coordination between the Education department and the Meghalaya Board of School Education when it comes to the introduction of new subjects.
“MBoSE had introduced new subjects like tourism without sanctioning a post. We need qualified teachers to teach such subjects,” he said.
The deficit teachers also brought to the notice of the officers the practice of many schools to collect fees from the students for paying the salaries of computer teachers.
“We said the department should immediately sanction a post if any subject is introduced to be taught in the schools,” Khongjirem said.
He added that the teachers requested the government to release the pending arrears of the deficit schools teachers by December.