By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Nov 12: The new structured salary or grant-in-aid for different categories of teachers will be rolled out by April 1, 2026.
Disclosing this on Wednesday, Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui said the government has proposed the structured pay system as it wants the teachers to have a sense of security.
Reiterating that the central government will stop the grants for SSA teachers by March next year, he said the Meghalaya government will take necessary steps to bring the ad hoc, fourth and Hindi teachers under a common pay structure.
He acknowledged that the government will not be able to satisfy everyone. He said the new pay structure will be formulated by December 31 and executed by April 1.
As of now, the government has not thought of including the deficit teachers in the one pay structure system.
To a query, Rymbui said the government is working on the matter of managing funds for the new pay structure.
Push for rationalisation of teachers
The Minister reaffirmed that the government will go ahead with the teacher rationalisation process to ensure quality education. “The plan is in place. We have to move forward not for any other reason, but because we want to ensure quality education for the students of the state,” Rymbui said.
The move came a day after Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma had revealed that Meghalaya has 206 schools with zero enrolment and 2,269 schools with single-digit enrolment. He described it as a “huge challenge” in rationalising schools and teachers without affecting livelihoods.
The government’s rationalisation exercise aims to reallocate teachers from schools with very few students to those with higher enrolment to improve efficiency and address disparities in manpower distribution. The process involves government-to-government and SSA-to-SSA transfers as part of the broader effort to strengthen the education delivery system.
Officials said the initiative is designed to ensure that every school has the required number of teachers, adequate student strength, and proper infrastructure in keeping with the state’s larger goal of improving the quality of education in all districts.
On Tuesday, the Chief Minister had underscored the “huge challenge” in rationalising schools and teachers without affecting livelihoods. He stated that the government must confront the structural issues in the education system while keeping the focus on students’ welfare.
“We need to rationalise the different categories of schools and teachers without hampering their livelihoods,” he had stated.
He had also stated that the long-term growth of Meghalaya depends fundamentally on investing in people, asserting that “investment in human capital is the greatest investment you can do.”
He maintained that physical infrastructure alone is insufficient without sustained focus on educating and nurturing the youths of state.
