Shillong, March 27: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Monday stated that providing a uniform salary to over 65,000 teachers in the state would have an unimaginable impact on the government. Stating that it is not feasible for the government to provide a uniform salary to teachers in the state, he highlighted that over Rs 2,700 crore has been budgeted for the education sector, of which Rs 2,200 crore is spent only on teachers’ salaries.

“Hence, it is not easy for the government,” he said in his reply in the Assembly, while informing that the State Education Commission will be helping the government to address the problems in the education sector.

Regarding ad-hoc school teachers, the Chief Minister pointed out that the ad-hoc schools have been started by private school managing committees and not by the government. Therefore, the teachers in ad-hoc schools are appointed by private school managing committees and not the government. However, the government has decided to provide funds as ad-hoc grants after being approached by private school managing committees. Nearly 700 schools have applied for ad-hoc grants, but the government is yet to approve them.

Further, he said that the government is paying salary to the teachers of government lower primary schools on time. “We have also realized the fact that…these teachers (in adhoc schools) deserved to get salary on time therefore, we have been working on the suggestion for a very long time and that is why we enhanced the grant and ensure that it is also given on time,” Conrad added.

Earlier, replying to a query raised by Congress MLA from Nongstoin Gabriel Wahlang, Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma said that the government had last year enhanced the grants of adhoc and all categories of schools except SSA.

He also revealed that there are more than 1002 vacancies in government lower primary schools, and the recruitment process will take place. The government has also decided to send temporary teachers to all government lower primary schools since there is a delay in the recruitment of MTET passed candidates.