Shillong, Sep 13: Yet another group of education system stakeholders have rejected the Voice of the People Party (VPP) demand for the removal of Commissioner and Secretary Vijay Kumar Mantri from his post.
The Meghalaya 4th Teachers Association added its name to the list of those against the VPP’s idea, the others being the Meghalaya SSA School Association and the Meghalaya Schools Welfare Development Association (MSWDA). The Education Department’s top civil servant also received the backing of his minister, Lahkmen Rymbui.
In a video statement, the 4th Teachers Association’s general secretary Federick Lyngdoh Tongkhar said the association disagrees with the demand.
“Vijay Kumar is a hard working man who wants to bring overall goodness for the teachers,” Tongkhar said.
He said Kumar never takes decisions alone but calls all concerned stakeholders before taking a collective decision for overall betterment.
Tongkhar said the Structured Pay Framework (SPF) has given qualified teachers an opportunity to get equal pay for equal work. Earlier, he said, payment to teachers differed vastly from school to school. Through SPF, payment is now equal for equal workload and timing.
“We disagree with the demand for Kumar’s removal because it is through him that much is left to be sent to the government to make the SPF even better,” he added.
He said the association is thankful that through Vijay Kumar the government has worked to make the condition of teachers better and they want him to remain in office to make the SPF even better.
The VPP blamed Mantri for enacting policies that are “anti-people and insensitive to the interests of local educators and communities,” specifically over the SPF, welfare of teachers in deficit grant-in-aid institutions, service conditions and school rationalisation, etc.
