SHILLONG, March 15: Barely a week after assuming of office, some of the festering issues facing the education sector have begun to surface before MDA 2.0.
On Wednesday, raising of teachers’ salaries, timely release of grants, filling up vacant posts of teachers featured prominently when the Meghalaya SSA Schools’ Association (MSSASA) called on a ministerial team. The body urged the state government to increase the budgetary allocation for the SSA for fiscal 2023-2024.
“We would not want the same situation to crop up where we will have to come out to the streets to demand the release of the salaries. The need of the hour is to increase the budget to address the problem of delay or irregular payment of salaries of the SSA teachers,” MSSASA president, Aristotle C. Rymbai told reporters after the meeting with Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong.
The meeting was in presence of Education Minister, Rakkam A. Sangma and Education Secretary, Ambrose C. Marak.
Rymbai said the government can pay their salaries if there is a delay in the release of funds by the Centre if more funds are allocated for the SSA.
He said Tynsong assured the association that the government will try to work out a mechanism to ensure that the salaries of the SSA teachers are paid on time.
Rymbai also said they discussed the need to fill up the posts of the SSA teachers in several lower and upper primary schools, which are lying vacant due to resignation, retirement, or death.
The MSSASA president said the government has requested them to wait for some time since they are required to resolve some pending issues with the school managing committees.
Sangma said the government will try to resolve the issue raised by the SSA teachers, especially on the timely release of salaries.
“We have cleared the salaries till December last year. We are waiting for the Centre to release the second phase of the funds to be able to release the pending salaries. We are expecting a positive response within the next 15 days,” he said.
He also said that the government will examine the possibility of allocating more funds to the SSA. “The teachers’ welfare is our priority. We will do it if there is a way out,” Sangma said.
He further said the government has decided to make a stopgap arrangement for the appointment of teachers in the teacherless government lower primary schools.
There are 26 schools in South Garo Hills alone that have no teachers, he said.
“We will be appointing teachers for a period of 59 days. We will continue with this system till we are able to conduct regular recruitment,” the minister said.
On the exemption for CUET, he said the state government is still awaiting a reply from the Union Education Ministry.
The government is similarly waiting for the report and recommendations of the search committee for constituting the State Education Commission, he said.
“We will constitute the commission as soon as we receive the report,” he said.
