Shillong, Sept 17: Education Minister Rakkam A. Sangma on Monday said the state government is working out a formula to address the issues concerning the SSA teachers.

“We are working out the modalities and working out a formula on how to address their (SSA teachers) issues in the days to come,” Sangma told reporters.

He was responding to a query on the demand of the SSA teachers to enhance their salary by 100 percent within this month.

Sangma said the demand is genuine and the government is trying its best to balance it out. “We are also requesting them to be patience (with the government),” he added.

The minister informed that earlier the funding pattern for SSA salary component was 90:10, whereby 90 percent was borne by central government and 10 percent by state government. However, the state government has been raising additional 5% every year for the salary component for SSA teachers, and now the salary component is 70:30, and next year it will be 65:35.

“We are practically raising every year 5% of the salary component of SSA teachers but practically it is not happening. Why? Because government of India has been cutting down the 5% every year of the salary component of the SSA teachers,” he said while hinting that “maybe next 3-4 years it might be 50:50, which means 50% to be borne by the state government and 50% by the central government. So, at the end of the day, maybe Central Government decide to handover to the state government (full 100% payment to SSA teachers). We know the challenges and government is already on foot to find the modality and formula how to absorb (the teachers) and how to address the problem also.”

On the single digit and zero enrolment SSA schools, the minister said that a fact finding committee has been asked to visit every school to understand the problems and issues faced by such schools.

“We understand there are many schools with zero enrolment. There are many schools where teachers never go to the school. There are many schools with proxy teachers. There are many schools with single digit enrolment. There are many schools with no buildings. There are many schools having more teachers than students. There are many schools having 4 teachers and 2 students. So we will be sending the fact finding team or group of team; we will get that details of every teachers, every school. At the same time, we are working out the modalities on how to absorb the teachers, be it SSA, be it adhoc, deficits because we are the same family,” he informed.

Stating that Meghalaya has the highest dropout rate in the country and lowest PGI ranking, the minister said this is directly connected to the performance of the teachers.

“Our education system especially in the lower primary is not up to the mark. We encourage them (teachers) to focus on their duties and they should give quality education and government is looking at options, what we can do. We had meeting with chief minister, and chief minister had asked the department to give details presentation before we go ahead,” he further said.

To another query, Rakkam said, “It is not a question of being afraid (to take action). That doesn’t come in the picture. We have already shifted some of the teachers with zero enrolment but when enrolment comes back, we will send back the teachers to particular schools.”

Further, the Minister said that the department will definitely take action against teachers who have outsourced their teaching jobs to other people. “If we receive formal complaints from anybody (outsources his teaching job), law will take its own course. The department will definitely take necessary step to address the issue.”

He also maintained that if someone doesn’t want to come to school, doesn’t have interest in teaching, then the person should resign and join some other business or profession. “I was a teacher but I have more interest in politics. Therefore, I have resigned from my post and I joined politics,” he remarked.

Read: Assam: Controversy erupts over checking private parts of female examinee, CM orders probe

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