Shillong, May 4: The state government today invited representatives of the deficit grant-in-aid schools and colleges for a meeting to understand their issues and explore possible resolutions.
The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday at 3pm in the Secretariat.
In a press communique today, the Education Department stated that it has notified the Meghalaya Non-Government School and College Employees Centralised Provident Fund Scheme 2026 with the objective of ensuring long-term financial security and social protection for more than 30,000 employees of non-government schools and colleges across the state.
However, deficit teachers launched a statewide poster campaign today to protest the same scheme. The teachers maintain that the new policy threatens the financial security of thousands of employees and ignores established legal safeguards currently in place.
On the other hand, the state government views the scheme as a significant and progressive reform in the education sector, as it extends structured provident fund and pension benefits to a wide spectrum of employees, including deficit teachers and lecturers, ad hoc teachers, SSA and RMSA teachers, Hindi and Science Grant teachers, pre-primary teachers, as well as various categories of non-teaching staff.
“By bringing all such categories under a unified and professionally managed framework, the scheme aims to promote equity, transparency and sustainability,” the department stated in its release, adding that a large number of employees have responded positively to the scheme.
On concerns expressed by deficit institutions, the department stated that the matter is currently sub judice before the High Court of Meghalaya.
As part of the teachers’ demonstration, posters were displayed at St Anthony’s Higher Secondary School in Shillong to highlight the group’s grievances.
They argue that the government must respect the legitimate rights of the workforce and uphold existing legal provisions.
Through this collective action, the group is appealing to the Meghalaya government to refrain from imposing any policy that could prove detrimental to the welfare of both serving and retired staff members.
“We deficit teachers are opposed to the CPF scheme 2026. We had accepted the notification of May 29, 2023 where it was clearly stated that teachers who joined before April 1, 2010 should get CPF, but those who joined later should get real NPS (National Pension System),” a deficit teacher, Synshar Marwein, stated.
The NPS terms are more generous, which make it more attractive to teachers.
