Guwahati, Feb 19: The Sadou Asom Prathomik TET Uttirno Shikshak Samaj (SAPTUSS) has condemned Assam education minister Ranoj Pegu’s recent statement in a section of media that only two percent of TET-qualified teachers had refrained from giving consent to the state government’s proposal on regularisation.
“We have documentary evidence that about 12000 teachers who have not given consent to such form of regularisation are waiting for the final verdict of the High Court. Out of 35327 teachers, 25500 are working under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA), of which 12000 have not signed the optional declaration. So about 47 percent of teachers have not signed the declaration,” SAPTUSS president Trailokya Deka said.
The education minister had stated that while only two percent of teachers did not sign the declaration form, 98 percent teachers have given their consent to the government’s proposal to be newly appointed to regular posts.
“The minister also accused the two percent teachers of trying to derail the process of regularisation. While the matter is sub-judice, such comments from an elected representative are highly condemnable,” Deka said.
The central leadership of SAPTUSS further sought a clarification on what basis the education minister made the statement.
“As a responsible Cabinet Minister and public representative, it is his moral obligation to protect the rights and dignity of every employee of the department he heads. Ridiculing the teacher community, on the contrary, through such baseless remarks is unfortunate,” he said.
The minister’s remarks, it may be noted, have created wide-spread resentment among the contractual TET teachers who have been serving since 2012.
Despite repeated protests, the issue of regularisation of their services with pay protection has not been addressed, the association claims, compelling the latter to approach the High Court for a proper redressal.
“Signing the optional declaration will mean giving consent to appointment to regular posts and that the contractual teachers who have been serving since 2012 would not only lose a sizeable amount of their salary but also have to forgo all service benefits accumulated so far, including increments, seniority in workplace, leave benefits,” said a TET teacher.
The association further expressed disappointment over the fact that their salaries of the contractual teachers working under SSA for the month of January have still not been disbursed.
“Contractual teachers are posted in various remote areas across the state. The delayed salary takes a huge toll on their day-to-day life. Besides, the SSA teachers are bearing the brunt of various discrepancies over financial matters. Even after rendering more than 11 years of service they are yet to get the time scale and several other anomalies in their pay fixation are yet to be rectified by SSA,” the SAPTUSS president said.
“As SSA has signed, as the first party, an agreement ensuring their service for 60 years, it is their moral responsibility to abide by the clauses of the agreement. Therefore, SAPTUSS has urged SSA to release their January month’s salary and resolve the other pending issues within a week,” he said.
“It is unfortunate that teachers are compelled to come out to the streets fighting for their legitimate rights. If the government fails to take adequate measures to resolve these issues within the stipulated time the teachers will be compelled to stage protests,” he said.