Shillong, May 09: The Meghalaya SSA School Association (MSSASA) Central Body recently called on Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma for discussion on the long pending issue raised by the Teachers Union to Regularize the service of all the existing 12481 Teachers recruited and working under budget head of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan as Contractual employees for years which is supposed to be recruited in State Education department on regular basis with same salary and service condition as of State budget teachers.
President of Meghalaya SSA School Association Central Body Mr Aristotle C Rymbai pointed out, “the Government of India has a clear cut norms and guidelines under SSA wherein State/Union Territories are given financial support of salary of teachers with a condition these posts of teachers shall be created in States and Union Territories Education Department on regular basis with same salary and service conditions as of State budget teachers.
But in our State Meghalaya it was found that the State Government had committed mistake since day one of implementation the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) Flagship Programme and continuing committed the same mistake till date by allowing creation of these posts under State SSA Implementation Society known as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan State Education Mission Authority Meghalaya (SSA-SEMAM) on contractual basis for whom different service arrangement have been spelt out and the 5766 Primary Teachers and 6715 Upper Primary teachers recruited under SSA were posted only in SSA supported Schools in the State.
Mr Aristotle C Rymbai also said, Para 21, sub para (21.1) of SSA Manual on Financial Management and Procurement, clearly says “the teachers under sanctioned post of SSA are to be appointed by Education Department as SSA is not separated but is an additionality to States/UTs over and above the expenditure on elementary education” which means that teachers recruited under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) are not separated from Regular teachers but only their budget head is different.
Further As per revise SSA norms issued by Govt of India on 1st January 2014 approved by Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister who is Chairman of the Executive Committee of National Mission for SSA in para 8 sub para (i) says that “State should maintain unified teaching cadre and no separate SSA Teachers is permissible”. which the same was reminded by Alok Jawahar Under Secretary to the Govt. of India MHRD Department of School Education and Literacy on 16th July, 2015 and 19thJuly 2016, in a letter issued to the Account Officer MHRD Department of School Education and Literacy, which a copy forwarded to the SPD, SSA-SEMAM, Chief Secretary Government of Meghalaya, Secretary, Education Department, that “No permanent posts shall be created under the SSA funds.
Teacher Posts shall be created by the State Government even where such posts are supported by SSA funding”. Complying with MHRD guidelines the State like Sikkim, Manipur, West Bengal, Punjab has already started regularised the service of the teachers recruited and working under SSA.
That section 23 part(3) of the RTE Act 2009 says,” Salary and allowances payable to, and the terms of conditions of teachers, shall be as such as may be prescribed” Section 38, part(1) says, ”The appropriate government may, by notification, make rules for carrying out provisions of the act.” And also section 38,part(2) says, In particular, and without any prejudice to the generality of the foregoing powers, such rules may provide for all or any of the following matters, namely, sub part (l),”Salary and allowances payable to, and the terms of conditions of service of teachers, under sub section (3) of section 23.
The MMSASA said that It is clear beyond any doubt that prejudiced activity of Meghalaya Government is not permissible in terms of the salary, allowances and service conditions of teachers and against well set section 23(3) and section 38(1),(2) and subsection (l), Meghalaya Government violated the RTE Act 2009 by prescribing different service conditions for Primary and Upper Primary Teachers appointed under SSA and State budgets.
The success of any effort to improve the quality of education is centrally dependent upon the teacher. Quality issues in education are crucially linked to quality issues in teachers. Our education system will be able to deliver good education when all strands (teacher education, service conditions of teacher, curriculum, school processes, etc) reflect the aims of education as articulated in our State and National Policy documents and are based on the values of the Constitution. Partial implementation or implementation that does not reflect the spirit of the policy defeats the entire purpose of it, Rymbai added.
Rymbai inform, during the meeting with Chief Minister on April 4 the Teachers Union urged the Chief Minister on urgent needs to address the issue so that there will be no discrimination arise further in salary and service condition and also in the selection process of teachers, he (Conrad K Sangma) had assured the Teachers Union to examine the matter and to discuss with the Minister Incharge and Officials of Education Department for further Act of actions.
