• Govt,. hasn’t paid program teachers for five months
• Boycott from August 21
• Financial hardships, adverse family economics
EMN
Dimapur, August 10
Another group of teachers called the “Nagaland RMSA Teachers Association (2013)”, stated to be the Longleng district unit has threatened to boycott work and classes protesting what they said was the failure of the Nagaland government in releasing salaries pending for five months.
The organization, a group of teachers under the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) education program, issued a press release on Monday, August 10.
The Longleng unit said that it was ‘firm on the resolution made during the NRMSA general meeting’ conducted in Kohima on August 4 and ‘the subsequent open letter submitted to director of School Education’.
“Stating that the demand of the teachers is genuine which needs to be addressed urgently, it strongly support the parent body to boycott classes from August 21 if the department fails to fulfill all the demands including release of 5 months pending salary from March 2015-till date,” the press release from the group stated.
According to the group, , the teachers have “undergone untold hardships all those months, has found no way out to bear the negligence of the State government but to resort to show resentment by boycotting classes and taking other necessary steps until the demand is fulfilled”.
“The association states that, even the ‘missionaries’ and those charity workers are paid for their daily consumption and expenditure, the teachers are no superhuman to go on toiling empty stomach all those months and endure hardships and tensions when their debts are mounting up and no other means and resources left to manage daily expenditure”.
The association claimed that If the state government acts fully responsible and does not neglect “lifebuilding sectors” such as education, because negligence and improper treatment meted out to its employees, it shall have “direct impact on the society”. The group of ‘RMSA teachers’ have requested the government of Nagaland not to make the RMSA program “an element of ‘curse’ for both the teachers and students since the moral degradation imposed on the teachers may abstain the teachers from giving their best to the students because the teachers too are human being bearing human weakness of frustration and discouragement”.
The teachers explained further that besides meeting the departmental officials in the respective districts, representatives of all the districts have also met the mission director of the RMSA and the director of School Education on May 27 and the 28th. The teachers had appealed to them to release the salaries, the organization said.
“The representatives have also met the commissioner and secretary (of) School Education and minister (of) School Education the following dates and shared the grievances of the teachers. But the responsible authority have failed miserably to address the issues with excuses best known to them and reasons which we do not agree with,” the association stated.
“Thus, the teachers are left helpless with no option but to resort to boycotting of classes on the expiry of the 20th August dateline. The teachers have also questioned the responsibility of the All Nagaland School Teachers Association (ANSTA) and ask why they remain a silent spectator when sections of the teachers are undergoing serious hardships”.
The ‘RMSA teachers’ requested ‘all the likeminded citizens, parents, students and nongovernmental organizations to think and analyze the gravity of the situation and support the cause of the teachers so as to avoid disturbing of smooth running of classes and provide best service to the students like we all always wanted to’.
