The state government has ruled out taking back the 800 contractual teachers who were let go at the start of last year.
“The question of reinstatement does not arise because the process of recruitment has been completed in the first phase and it will continue,” Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui said today. “So, those who are qualified and got through will be appointed.”
Around 800 contractual teachers were dismissed from government lower primary schools in January 2021. Some of them had been working under contract for over a decade. When they began work it was not mandatory to have cleared the Meghalaya Teacher Eligibility Test (MTET) but the state government brought in this requirement in 2020.
The teachers have been protesting near the MBOSE office since Monday.
The minister said that the appointment of the teachers was done on a temporary basis, hence their contractual tag, and these sorts of jobs are a feature of all departments, not just his own.
Yesterday, it was suggested by Nongpoh MLA Mayralborn Syiem that some or all of the contractual teachers now out of work could be appointed as officiating teachers at schools that are short-staffed.
Rymbui did not look favourably on this suggestion, saying “We cannot rule out that there are schools without teachers but we cannot go back on policy matters. The [appointment] process will continue and those qualified will be appointed.”
