The Meghalaya Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Schools Association (MSSASA) today apprised Education Minister Rakkam Sangma on several issues pertaining to the welfare of the SSA teachers in the state.
MSSASA president Aristotle Rymbai firstly extended his gratitude towards the government for taking the initiative to implement direct payment of salaries to the SSA teachers’ bank accounts.
“We are very grateful to the Education Minister and also Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong and the MDA government for taking this initiative to fulfill this long pending demand of SSA teachers regarding implementation for payment of salary directly to the teachers’ bank accounts,” Rymbai said.
The state government implemented this policy last month and the salaries (from January 2023) will be transferred to teachers directly.
The association also discussed the demand for greater provision in the state budget for the SSA scheme.
“Today the minister informed that steps have been taken to address this demand and that the government has taken a decision regarding pending salaries of teachers. He said that teachers should not suffer. We were assured that for the first instalment for the 2022-23 financial year the government of India will send the funds likely by the end of June or the first week of July,” Rymbai said.
The state government has arranged for a corpus fund to in the meantime pay the salaries while the funds from the Centre are awaited.
March salaries will probably be released to all the teachers, which will be approximately Rs 26-27 crore for one month.
Other issues raised by the association included the appointment of a chairman and members of the Meghalaya State Education Commission and the appointment of teachers to fill vacancies in SSA schools.
The association was informed by Sangma that a decision will be take after studying enrolment numbers in all schools and, after that, a decision to grant permission to those schools who have higher student enrollment could be taken.
