The state government could take action against SSA teachers and their schools if an indefinite strike launched by the educators continues, Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui warned today.
While sounding a note of warning on one hand, Rymbui also tried to placate the teachers with assurances that the state government is doing all it can to get the Centre to release the five months of pending salaries.
“Once we receive the funds, we will be able to release the salaries of the teachers,” Rymbui said. “We don’t know how much will be released in the first instalment but we want them (the Centre) to release as much as possible.”
Ninety percent of the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan scheme is funded by the central government with the remaining 10 percent borne by the state. The state government’s continued line is that it does not have the wherewithal to pay the teachers with its own funds while waiting for the Centre. This argument does not wash with the SSA teachers, who want Meghalaya to keep larger provisions for pay in its budget.
“We understand their hardship but there are some things that are not in our hands,” Rymbui said. “So, we should work together and they should resume their classes.”
According to the minister, 10 percent of schools in the state have been affected by the strike.
Asked whether the SSA teachers have adopted the all-day protest after the government caved to recently-held similar agitations by ad hoc teachers demanding higher pay, Rymbui said that, this time, there is nothing the government can do.
The state government created a corpus fund in 2019 and sanctioned more than Rs 79 crore from the fund to clear the pending salaries of SSA teachers.
“Last year we had exhausted our entitlement because Rs 79 crore-plus was drawn from the corpus fund to meet the demands for salaries,” Rymbui explained.
