SHILLONG, OCT 19:Complaining over disparity of pay structure to the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) school teachers, the teachers have demanded that the state government come up with a ‘reasonable’ or ‘uniform’ pay structure for all the teachers within December this year.
The demand was made after the teachers expressed concern over the disparity in the salaries paid to the teachers teaching in the SSA run schools in the state as the workload to them was more or less the same.
“We demand that the government come up with a reasonable pay structure to ensure there is equal pay for equal work,” Meghalaya SSA Association general secretary HM Marbaniang told reporters after a meeting with the Deputy Chief Minister in-charge Education RC Laloo on Monday.
According to him, at present there are at least four upper primary teachers appointed in every SSA schools across the state.
While three teachers are enjoying the salary of Rs 9900 from the centre, the fourth teacher is getting only a meager Rs 6000 which is paid by the state government.
Marbaniang said such disparity in the salaries of teachers is seen as partiality and this needs to be corrected as everybody is doing equal work at the end of the day.
He said, “Another reason for the demand is that around 4000 out of 12, 000 teachers have now been start to enroll for the teacher training courses. The government has to be prepared as with the completion of such training, many of them will be trained teachers and need equal salary.”
Echoing similar view, MSSAA president Manbhabok K Raswai said, “Therefore, we decided to demand the state government to immediately enhance the salary of the fourth teacher to Rs 9900 from Rs 6000 within December 20, failing which we will have to take other means of action.”
When asked, Raswai said that there are 1521 existing SSA schools which are having fourth teachers.
He however said that the system of appointing the fourth teachers came to an end from 2011 after a decision was taken during the tenure of Ampareen Lyngdoh, the then education minister, as there was protest from the teachers and the government had to retain those who had been appointed since the implementation of SSA till 2010.
Deputy Chief Minister RC Laloo assured the delegation that he would take up the matter with chief minister Mukul Sangma, who is also the in-charge of Finance and Planning department.
Laloo told the teachers that the issue had been brought by him before the state cabinet three times but no decision could be taken due to current financial crises faced by the government.- By Our Reporter
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