Shillong, Mar 10: Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui on Thursday said the government is trying to come up with an ‘appropriate and long-term solution’ to resolve the issues of the SSA teachers.

Replying to a short duration discussion moved by AITC legislator from Mawsynram, Himalaya Shangpliang, Rymbui said the SSA is a complicated subject in which the anomalies created in the past need to be rectified and for that it will take time. He, however, assured that the government would soon come up with a solution to this issue.

“The state government is seriously studying the matter from all angles and would soon come out with a solution. I request all stakeholders to support the state government and the education department to come out with an appropriate and long-term solution,” he said.

He informed that the payment of seven months teachers’ salary Rs 19863.20 lakh was released out of total receipt of fund of Rs 29535.32 lakh without much delay at every juncture whenever fund was released to the state government and Rs 6762.888 lakh was spent for implementation of other activities under recurring and non-recurring components and an unspent balance of Rs 2913.225 lakh which is not sufficient to pay even one month salary of teachers because Rs 2900.00 lakh approximately is required for payment of one month salary of teachers.

Rymbui said that the education department alongside the finance department are working hard to release the capping salary to meet at least two months of salary and would release the balance amount whenever the government of India releases the sufficient amount in the 2nd installment.

“In this regard, the education department has completed all the formalities and submitted all related documents to the Government of India for an early release,” he added.

Stating that the educational setup in Meghalaya is different when compared to other states in the region, Rymbui said Assam have 65907 schools of which 15396 are SSA schools and 32469 teachers which are managed and administered by the education department of Assam.

The same with Arunachal Pradesh which have 3666 schools of which 939 are SSA schools with 6594 teachers which are managed and administered by the education department of Arunachal Pradesh. Also Mizoram have 3924 schools of which 824 are SSA schools with 2193 teachers that are administered and managed by the state government.

“Whereas, the state of Meghalaya have 14,694 schools of which 5166 are SSA schools with 12541 teachers,” he said adding that the reason or the comparison is that it was asserted that the SSA teachers of these states received their monthly salary on a regular basis whereas the SSA teachers in Meghalaya suffers delay for five months.

“It is therefore understandable that the SSA schools in these states are managed and administered by the state education department since inception and the teachers are recruited under the state recruitment policy of the respective states including appointments,” he said.

“However, the case is diverse with Meghalaya since the SSA schools are primarily managed by religious institutions, NGOs, private parties, and community based schools. The recruitment and appointment authority are the school managing committee and the state government is the funding agency depending on the fund release by the Government of India,” Rymbui added.

According to him, there has been no delay in the release of salary whenever the fund flow from the Government of India is sanctioned.