Angered at the state government’s unwillingness to meet their demands, the All Garo Hills SSA School Teachers’ Association (AGHSSASTA) has threatened to boycott work if the administration does not act on their issues.
“We have continued to submit memorandums to the Chief Minister and the Education Minister, seeking the release of our pending arrears for eight months, but nothing has been done. We are quite unhappy over the insensitivity of the government on the matter,” said Secretary Benabith Sangma.
Giving the state government until the end of the month to clear their pending dues, AGHSSASTA has threatened to boycott their duties if this is not done.
“We will boycott our work from March 1 till our demands are met,” stated Labingstone Momin, the AGHSSASTA President.
“As per the Right to Education norms, it is mandatory for the state government to regularize the posts of SSA teachers with teachers being paid regular salaries. The government is not following the RTE norms and is not taking it as a mandatory,” they added.
Talking of the formation of the State Education Mission Authority of Meghalaya (SEMAM), the teachers stated that its mission was to look after the Education Department, something that the department has failed miserably to look after.
“It’s almost 20 years since the inception of SESAM despite which we are still in the same contractual status even after fulfilling all the norms mentioned in the RTE,” the teacher representatives added.