Teachers draw support from civil society
Dimapur, April 19 (MExN): They have not been paid since November last year; their arrears for all of 2013 remain unpaid. Under the aegis of the Nagaland SSA Teachers’ Association (NSSATA), SSA teachers from Nagaland facing these dire circumstances have been agitating and staying away from classrooms for something as basic as their wages since March this year. Thousands of students over Nagaland are affected. On April 16, the NSSATA submitted a letter-cum-ultimatum to the Governor of Nagaland to take note of their plight or the agitations would be intensified. Meanwhile, the Government of Nagaland continues to insist that the issue is “beyond the control of the State Government and the Department.”
Clear pending salaries by stipulated deadline: ENSF
The Eastern Naga Students Federation (ENSF) has appealed to the Nagaland State Government to “immediately clear the pending salaries of the SSA Teachers within the stipulated dateline given by the NSSATA.” In a press statement from its president, Shahsha L. Menhahu, and assistant general secretary, Topongchuba Chang, the Federation apprised the department concerned to take “serious note” of the problems faced by students in government schools where teachers appointed under SSA have “refused to perform their duties” due to non-payment of their pending salaries since November 2013 till date and the arrears of 2013 “which is their Legitimate Rights.”
The ENSF stated that “when most schools in Nagaland particularly in the four districts of Eastern Nagaland are faced with the problem of shortage of teachers, such kind of insincerity on the part of the government is uncalled for.”
The ENSF felt “dismayed” that “teachers are led to protest for their salaries in the streets, whereas parents had to risk the future of their children by sending them to the Govt. school where innocent students had to endure all the suffering without teachers in the classrooms.”
While expressing support to the NSSATA, the ENSF expressed “faith upon the concern authority that the matter would taken up on priority before the NSSATA takes up the next course of action and the aggrieved students take to the streets demanding for regular teachers.”
NTC urges Nagaland State Government to “immediately address” SSA teachers’ plight
The Nagaland Tribes Council (NTC) has expressed surprise at the “callous attitude” of the Government of Nagaland towards “the basic need of the SSA teachers who shoulder the core responsibilities of the state towards the student’s career.” It has urged the State Government to “immediately address the genuine demands of the NSSATA for release of pending salaries considering the plight of the Teachers and the students.”
“It is disheartening to state that the SSA Teachers are deprived of their normal salaries after their appointment in March, 2013. Nobody can work on empty stomach and as such the teachers and yet, the ultimate victims are the students,” noted the NTC in a press statement from its general secretary Nribemo Ngullie and acting president, Lendinoktang.
In order to “resume peaceful functioning of the Educational Institutions in the larger interest of the rural base student careers,” the Government, stated the NTC, is “duty bound” to “solve the imbroglio and see that students are rescued from this predicament.”
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