SSA Teachers under the banner of the Meghalaya Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan School Association (MSSASA) have once again demanded the state government enhance their salary to the level of regular teachers in government schools.
There are 5,814 lower primary SSA teachers and 6,727 upper primary ones in the state but they have not been brought under the Education Department, whose teachers receive higher wages.
However, Aristotle C Rymbai, President of MSSASA told reporters today that all teachers under the Right to Education Act 2009 must receive the pay and allowances of regular teachers.
“But in our state SSA teachers are being paid only with a ‘fixed remuneration’, which contradicts the provisions of the RTE Act 2009 and state rules of 2011,” Rymbai said.
Meanwhile, he latched onto the claim from Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong recently that the state fuel tax is going towards the education sector. This would have amounted to Rs 367 crore for 2020-21 and the SSA teachers are demanding to know exactly how this money is spent and which teachers it benefits.
Rymbai also castigated the National People’s Party (NPP), the leading force in the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government, for not adhering to its 2018 manifesto where it promised to find amicable solutions to the problems faced by the teaching fraternity.
“We have not seen any development and signs of what the NPP promised before the election on issues faced by the teachers and several of our memorandums have probably gone straight into the dustbin,” he said.
