Perhaps a little exasperated by the seemingly endless demands of teachers for salary hikes, Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui said in the Assembly today that his department has commitments other than just wages.
Rymbui said this after stating that the government’s endeavour is to enhance the salary of ad-hoc teachers when the financial situation is favourable.
Currently, it costs Rs 181 crore to pay teachers in ad-hoc schools. To bring them at par with government school teacher salaries, as is their demand, the government would have to find an additional Rs 251 crore. To increase the salaries of ad-hoc and SSA teachers would cost more than Rs 500 crore, the minister said.
“It is not enough for us to commit to provincialise the ad-hoc schools or give ad-hoc grants. We need to deliberate on how to pay them,” Rymbui said. “Anybody can establish a school but it is not mandatory for the government to give assistance to these schools.”
Meanwhile, he also explained why SSA fourth teachers are paid differently to their counterparts.
The central government finances up to three teachers in SSA schools, however, if there is a fourth, the salary for the latter must be borne by the state government.
Rymbui said this when the matter of the fourth teachers was raised by Congress legislator Himalaya Shangpliang.
While their counterparts are now earning more than Rs 20,000 per month, the fourth teachers are drawing Rs 12,000 despite their duties and levels of experience being the same, a situation Shangpliang did not approve of.
The state government is considering an enhancement to the SSA fourth teachers’ salaries, Rymbui informed.
“It is interesting to note that despite the differences in qualification between the fourth teachers and the ad hoc lower primary school teachers, they share the same amount of salary,” Shangpliang said.
