Continuing their protests against illegal appointment of two teachers in the Mendima UP Deficit School in North Garo Hills district, residents of the village today took out a protest rally on the issue.
The allegations of illegal appointment have been directed towards the headmaster of the UP section as well as another assistant teacher along with the SMC president. The villagers through their rally today expressed their willingness to continue the protest until the appointments are cancelled and fresh interviews held.
The villagers have been unhappy over the DMC members being overlooked during the appointment of the two teachers as well as the discriminatory nature of the advertisement for the positions, which mentioned preference for male candidates. The advertisement was taken out in February this year.
“The appointments were forced upon us and this is something that we cannot tolerate. We will continue our protests until the same is rectified. The advert had even written on preference for local candidates, though the ones chosen were anything but,” said the villagers.
Earlier one of the candidates had also claimed that there was no transparency during the entire selection process with the school authorities refusing to divulge marks obtained during the process. The same was not even displayed.
The villagers had also accused the headmaster, Nicorson B Sangma of coercion after many SMC members refused to sign the appointments.
As per the villagers, there are a total of 12 SMC members, which includes two teacher representatives and the president, Gening Marak. However, only five people signed including the two teachers along with the headmaster. The quorum as per them, for appointment, had not even been met.
They, the SMC members, added that the appointment of the teachers had originally been rejected by the education authorities but only passed after political pressure.
Various complaint letters to the effect and the unhappiness of the villagers have been written to the DC, the education minister as well as the CM but nothing seems to have come of it.
The protesters, through their rally today, sought the appointment of the teachers be scrapped and promised to continue protesting until their demands were made.
