The Garo Hills unit of the All Meghalaya 4th Teachers Association met Commissioner and Secretary of the Education Department, Vijay Kumar Mantri, regarding their plea for higher pay.
The teachers submitted a memorandum to him that detailed their history – how they were appointed as upper primary school teachers, had their designation changed later on to ‘4th teachers’, how they have served upwards of a decade without complaints against them and how their pay has always trailed that of other teachers, be they ad hoc, SSA or deficit.
Currently 4th teachers receive Rs 18,000 per month in salary, while SSA upper primary teachers receive Rs 20,493. This goes against the policy of ‘equal pay for equal work’, the memo stated.