Halfway, district administration deny agitators to sit-in protest at DoSE
Our Correspondent
Kohima | September 4
Following the revised salary guidelines where the salary of the RMSA teachers were reduced from Rs 31, 315/- to Rs 25,000/-, the Nagaland Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) Teachers Association-2016 began its second phase agitation on September 4.
A peaceful sit-in protest was held outside the Directorate of School Education in the morning; however the agitating teachers had to cut short their agitation after 12 noon following the refusal of the district administration to allow them to protest at the DoSE.
The protest will be put on hold on September 5 as a mark of respect to all teachers in Nagaland on Teachers' Day.
Over 600 RMSA teachers of the 2016 batch is currently on protest by boycotting classes against the backdrop of the Office Memorandum directing the teachers to 'either accept the reduced payment (by Rs 6315) within a month or face termination'.
All the government schools in Nagaland particularly students in the 9th and 10th standard are being affected due to the protest.
Earlier the RMSA teachers began their first phase agitation by boycotting classes due to the non-payment of their salaries for four months.
"On September 1, during a meeting with the Mission Director, we were verbally assured that our four month pending salaries will be disbursed but so far we have not received our salaries," said Kezhothito, former general secretary, NRMSATA 2016.
According to the Association, the issue of reduction in salary arose when the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India (GoI) began implementing the new scheme called the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan which is a merger of erstwhile Sarva Shikhsha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shikhsa Abhiyan (RMSA) in the State.
"This merger scheme (Samagra Shiksha Scheme) document does not in any way distinguishes the SSA and RMSA Teachers, salary structures under this program are thus based strictly on the different sections of the School taught viz, for primary teachers– upto Rs15,000, Upper Primary Teachers – upto Rs 20,000, Secondary Teachers – upto Rs 25,000," stated the Association.
Terming the Office Memorandum as severely discriminatory, the Association mentioned that the Samagra Shiksha document prescribes the amount to be solely segregated based on the different sections of the schools that the teachers are engaged with.
"No different criteria for SSA and RMSA is mentioned as they have already been merged. Therefore, if the government were to apply the same condition to the present SSA Teachers who are predominantly engaged in teaching the Primary and the Upper Primary sections, they would be receiving significantly lower amounts as the prescribed amount is only Rs 15000 and Rs 20,000 respectively."
The OM clearly states that Rs 25,000 is fixed for RMSA Subject Teachers, but even here, it goes to that proportion of discrimination where only some RMSA Teachers are served this OM," viewed the Association.
The Association further argued that there is no mention in the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan Draft Document that this fixed amount be made payable to the teachers of the state.
"Rather the Project Approval Board (PAB) minutes of the new scheme clearly mentions that the “State should meet the balance amount from its own resources including the additional funds devolved under the 14th Finance Commission. As per Section 7(5) of the RTE Act, 2009, the State Government shall after taking into consideration the sum, provided by the Central Government and mandatory matching State share, provide the balance funds necessary to fulfill the estimate for the implementation of the Act”.
The OM, according to the Association, does not merit as its contents are 'cherry picked from the context' where the draft document states that the salary structure will be determined by the state norms for salaries, which the Association further states, 'if interpreted would mean that the salary structure is determined based on the standard practice of the state for salaries and must not be exceptional'.
"The government can in no way take the excuse of fund constrains of the state when it can meet the resources for a batch or a particular group when the guidelines apply to all under the merger scheme. Their actions plainly exhibit the subjugation of our rights," stated the Association.
The indefinite sit-in protest will continue on September 6.
