The sole purpose of education and school seems to have lost its way or if not it has become a farce. Either there are no students in the school with many teachers or there is proxy teachers if students are there and to add up to it ,the random appointments, back door appointments and so on without any relevance of the needs and ground reality.
‘No Work No Pay’ has no relevance anymore. While some get paid without any work, some (especially SSA/RMSA) teachers don’t get paid in due time even after their hard and faithful work. The system has gone way out of its order and has failed miserably.
Productivity of every human depends on wellness and healthy being of oneself. Consider a teacher without salary for three/four months. How much can they produce or even for that matter execute their basic duties when they are worried as and how to put food on the table for the next day? Seriously, if this is not a joke then what is?, and especially for teachers who are in remote areas where even a day to day transport is out of question. And, not undermining the respected senior elder teachers but it is a science of human that the younger we are the more we can produce and mostly the fresh recruits under SSA and RMSA are young but who is to be blamed? And again talking on productivity, how much will a teacher be willing to sacrifice if his job doesn’t’ guarantee his livelihood?
The ‘Proxy Teacher’ trend comes into play. There may be many other reasons but salary issue is one among the main reason behind proxy teacher trend. How can one survive without eating? It is always best adjusted with some person (qualified or not) of that particular place because they have the source to eat at least. Is it the MHRD’s directive to not pay the teachers on monthly basis? And how on earth and on what basis do they asses the success of so called SSA/RMSA schemes?
Well, recently we have heard the words and commitment of our honorable education minister in line to do away with the system by cash delivery system; to bring SSA /RMSA teachers in par with state teachers; notification and order to stop the practice of proxy teachers by 30th June. ‘BUT’, without the opposition, without anybody to check and balance the issue, and the lay back attitude of authority without agitations and pressure, how far will the words be materialised? Well, we’ll have to wait and see .
L. Vika Chishi.
A concerned teacher
