SHILLONG, Sep 30: The contractual teachers under the banner of Meghalaya Government Lower Primary School Contractual Teachers’ Association (MGLPSCTA), whose services were terminated, are planning to shift the venue of their indefinite sit-in demonstration from near the life-sized statue of Kiang Nangbah at the Shillong Civil Hospital junction to a place outside the Main Secretariat on October 6.
The idea is to pressure the state government to reinstate them. They had, in fact, started their protest outside the Main Secretariat on September 7 but had to vacate the site due to the imposition of Section 144 at the Secretariat Hills. “Our agitation entered the 23rd day on Friday. We are going to march to resume our protest from outside the Main Secretariat on October 6 which is exactly one month since we started it,” MGLPSCTA president Birbor Riangtem told reporters.
“The previous government had given us an opportunity to reappear in the higher secondary exams in order to obtain 45% marks to meet the eligibility criteria. Not only this, we were also allowed to pursue a diploma in elementary education,” Riangtem said.
However, he continued, the present NPP-led government had in 2018 made a sudden decision to replace them with MTET-qualified teachers. The present government has not respected the initiative of the previous government, he lamented.
He said many states had appointed contractual teachers to permanent posts after conducting similar teachers’ eligibility tests. The remaining ones, who did not clear the exams, were allowed to continue as contractual teachers, he added.
The minimum qualification to be eligible for appointment as a teacher for Classes I-VIII is to pass the TET as per the National Council for Teacher Education, 2010 notification.
The 800 contractual teachers were dismissed from government lower primary schools in January 2021. Some of them had worked for more than a decade. When they started working, MTET was not mandatory but the state government introduced it in 2020.
