Shillong, Sep 20: The Meghalaya Upper Primary School Teachers Association (MUPSTA) has questioned the disparity in salaries between ad-hoc and deficit schools in the state.
MUPSTA General Secretary S.O. Lamare said that the government has classified both these categories of schools as private, but there is a difference in payment of salaries and wanted the government to respond on this issue.
MUPSTA in its meeting held today resolved to support the agitation called by the Federation of All School Teachers of Meghalaya (FASTOM) on September 22.
“Soon we will have our own agitation if this agitation (on September 22) will fulfill our demands,” Lamare said. The association has threatened to launch its own indefinite agitation after Durga Puja to protest salary disparities between ad-hoc and deficit teachers.
MUPSTA spokesperson Ganesh Baruah said for around a decade the association has been demanding that ad-hoc schools be transferred to the deficit pattern.
Though the State government had sought for a proposal to upgrade all adh-hoc upper primary schools to deficit pattern in 2019, nothing moved forward, he said.
According to Baruah, even the recent education commission report contained no recommendations for ad-hoc teachers and that neither the Chief Minister nor the Education Minister addressed the issue during the recently concluded Autumn Session of the Assembly.
He added that MUPSTA’s final demand is for teachers to be placed under the deficit pattern or at least provided with a basic pay structure.
