Imlitemjen
President, NRMSATA-2016
As many may be aware, the fixed ‘monthly salary’ of under-paid SSA/Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan (erstwhile known as RMSA) teachers in Nagaland has been half-yearly-who-knows-when-lump-sum salary since their appointment in 2016. For many, the salary is the only active income that provides for their families. Ever since the pandemic struck, many families who have RMSA Subject Teachers as the sole breadwinners have been pushed to the brink of abject poverty. Does this not make a mockery of teaching profession?
Isn't it unfair that while under-the-table appointees who entered the teaching profession some without any professional qualification(s) and without facing any formal written test nor interview, are given regular wages with all the employment benefits, RMSA Subject Teachers have been denied even the basic right to enjoy their meagre underpaid salary on/in time? What's more, RMSA Subject Teachers are ‘divided and ruled’ in batches. While one batch (111 teachers) has already been paid the half-yearly lump sum salary (as per reports), the first batch of RMSA Subject Teachers who were selected on merit has/have been unsalaried since April, 2021.
Not only have RMSA Subject Teachers been discriminated against but they have also been overlooked and unacknowledged by the authorities concerned even at the grassroot level! The very acronym RMSA has become a shameful stigma that elicits stifled laughter or a smile of pity. An acronym that stigmatises Teachers who are stuck in this rut of a “noble profession” and whose effort and contributions are unrecognised and unappreciated. In this toxic teaching environment, many “RMSA” Teachers are becoming demotivated and depressed, some even tendering resignation letters, as they have been turned to objects of ridicule in the community.
Despite this blatant discrimination directed against these stigmatised Teachers, it must be noted here that several RMSA-upgraded schools have been delivering pass percentages on an upward trajectory after the arrival of these RMSA Subject Teachers on the teaching scene. Truth be told, out of the eleven Government High Schools that delivered 100 % pass percentage in Mokokchung District in HSLCE, 2021, eight schools are RMSA-upgraded schools! Interestingly, before they were recruited, the pass percentages of these schools had been abysmally pathetic; however, RMSA Subject Teachers have proven themselves to be ‘Game Changers’ ever since their appointment in 2016. A good example would be that of the HSLCE results of GHS Longjang, a nondescript rural school that has been producing 100% pass percentage since HSLCE, 2018 as attested by the recently-published GHS Longjang: A Notch above the Rest' in the Eastern Mirror dated August 2, 2021.
Many RMSA Subject Teachers go the extra-mile above and beyond the classroom-teaching to educate the young learners. Since the students are from some of the most economically-disadvantaged families, these Subject Teachers are on many an occasion, compelled to cover the costs of meeting the educational needs of the underprivileged ‘leftover children.’ Given the dire circumstances to which the authorities have enslaved the so-called ‘Nation Builders’ or ‘Architects of the Nation’, the authorities concerned should take steps on humanitarian grounds to right the wrong RMSA Subject Teachers have been subjected to sooner than later, keeping in mind that these Teachers (like other mainstream regular/irregular, proxy and ghost teachers?) also need immediate reinforcement and motivation in their mission to produce positive educational outcomes.
‘In a time of universal deceit (corruption), telling the truth is a revolutionary act.’ Anon (attributed to George Orwell)
