SSA state project director directs agitating non-teaching staff to resume duties

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaAugust 14, 2024

The state project director Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) Swapnil Tembe on Wednesday asked the non-teaching staff to resume their duties since the Rationalisation Committee is already on the job to address their demands for salary enhancement.

According to him, the ongoing indefinite sit-in demonstration by the non-teaching staff during the last 15 days have to a great extent affected the release of salary to over 10,000 SSA teachers.

“Therefore, since the Rationalisation Committee is already on the job, it is pivotal that the non-teaching staff resume their duties and the activities under the program go on as planned,” Tembe said in a statement issued here.

He said despite these recommendations, the sit-in demonstration of the staff persists which is resulting in delays for releasing salaries of teaching staff, to conduct various interventions under SSA and to execute various Right to Education (RTE) interventions like disbursement of uniform grant, library grant school grants etc.

“There are more than 10,000 SSA teachers who could not get their July salaries till now due to this sit-in demonstration. However, steps are being taken to resolve this and to come up with an alternate mechanism,” he said while adding “Personnel from other verticals are being identified to carry out the release of salaries through PFMS.”

He however warned, “But this would eventually delay the utilization of the first instalment received without which the next instalments will not be released by the Govt of India.”

It is to be noted that recently state government’s approval was received for 25% enhancement which was not accepted by the non-teaching staff association and after that they have been on a sit-down demonstration.

The non-teaching staff have been demanding 80 percent salary enhancement.

Subsequently, the state government constituted a Rationalisation Committee headed by the Commissioner & Secretary, Education department along with representatives from the association and has already had 3 rounds of meetings to discuss their grievances and to come up with a rationalisation structure.

In the 2^nd meeting held on August 5, several key recommendations, such as, rationalised Base Pay as per number of years of service, an annual increment of 5% and several other welfare measures were recommended. The seniority was taken care by way of having different slabs for different lengths of service.

Tembe said that the Rationalisation Committee looked closely at the pay levels of all staff at State, District and Block level and observed that the block staff needed much more consideration than other levels and then came out with a range enhancements taking into consideration the length of service, existing salary and nature of work including qualification criteria.

“The recommendation of the Committee through its minutes signed by all the members present goes up to 100% increase of salary for those categories which needed major overhaul.

As all categories of posts were receiving different levels, it was felt and unanimously agreed that a flat rate of enhancement will not do justice to most and thus a rational structure was derived at,” he said.

He said that the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan State Education Mission Authority of Meghalaya (SSA-SEMAM) under the aegis of the Education department, has taken several steps over the years to ensure that the natural justice for sustenance is guarantee to all its beneficiaries and staff under this society.

The society is sensitive towards the welfare of its employees including teachers, especially on timely release of salary.

The society has taken notable steps on ensuring release of salary for teachers and non-teaching staff both.

“Several internal processes were re-engineered to ensure timely receipt of instalments from Ministry of Education. Regular follow ups and reviews ensured that all four instalments were received and utilized in the last financial year 2023-24. The society has been constantly following up on the matter of enhancement of salaries for the non-teaching staff under SSA,” he added.