Our Correspondent
KOHIMA, SEPTEMBER 14
Disgruntled over the apathy of the government over non-payment of their salaries, Nagaland’s teachers employed under the central flagship program Rashtriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhijan (RMSA) have on Monday announced that while they are pained to let their students down, they have resolved to continue boycotting classes until the time their due wages are paid in full.
The salaries of 194 RMSA teachers across the state are said to be pending along with arrears for the past six months. The unpaid and aggrieved teachers, under the umbrella of Nagaland RMSA Teachers’ Association 2013 (NRMSA 2013), launched their agitation on August 21 last by boycotting classes in their respective schools, after the Department of School Education (DoSE) failed to take up their case effectively. As a result of the boycott, it has been learnt, a total number of 49 government schools including 44 GHS, 3 GMS and 2 GHSS are being affected. This is happening in the backdrop of intense criticism from various quarters about the poor performance of government schools in the state.
NRMSA 2013 president, Thejazelie told journalists here today at a press conference at the Hut conference hall, that the association has been intensely pursuing with government officials at different levels for redressal to the matter since June last but the government has turned a deaf ear to the grievances and is yet to release the salaries. The list of authorities whom the NRMSA 2013 approached range from the director of School Education, the commissioner & secretary of the department, secretary Finance department, RMSA state mission director, the minister in-charge of School Education himself etc, followed by an appeal letter to the state Governor and the Chief Minister.
From what the aggrieved teachers disclosed, most of the officials seem to be either passing the buck (of blame) to one another or making up excuses without giving any logical explanation and failing to give any assurance to the group of young teachers on why their salaries were being withheld for the past six months. While the DoSE reportedly said it was waiting for the Finance Department to release the fund and the latter claimed that there was no money in the department for RMSA, an official of the DoSE is said to have conveyed to the teachers that the Central Ministry of HRD could not release the fund as the state has failed to produce a utilization certificate (UC) for the scheme while others claimed that UC was submitted a long time back, and in another instance an official of the department said the file was misplaced. On meeting the affected teachers, the state minister for School Education reportedly said he would take up the matter but confessed that he was not in a position to give any assurance.“We have no more option other than to resort to boycott our classes though we are greatly pained in our hearts to do so…. We sincerely want to do our duty and the government should also do its duty by releasing our salaries on time,” said one of the RMSA teachers who was also present at the press conference.
It may be mentioned that on September 3, the state RMSA mission director had requested the teachers to revoke the boycott and resume classes as the academic year is coming to an end, but the RMSA teachers were adamant as they are not being paid for their work which resulted in their inability to afford even basic essentials for themselves and they have instead become a burden to their families by being dependent on them for the past six months now.
“The government is to blame since it is directly responsible for stopping us from performing our duties,” said a member of NRMSA 2013.
“We were interviewed, selected and employed by the state and it is the state’s duty to ensure that we are paid the wages we are supposed to get,” says another teacher.
The education department which used to be looked upon as the most respected department has, in the recent years, been gradually losing its credibility with many issues attached to it- proxy teachers issue, bogus teachers issue, non-release of salaries for teachers under CSS, poor performance of government schools in the HSLC and HSSLC examinations, government teachers aspiring to be based in the directorate instead of the classroom, etc to name a few.
As for the current RMSA teachers issue, it was reported that four months salary have already been released to all the districts except for Kohima district. However, this payment does not cover the arrears, the teachers have alleged.
“Whatever has been released till now have all been absorbed in clearing our debts,” one of the affected teachers from Wokha said. “We have decided to continue to boycott classes until whatever is due to us is paid in full,” another teacher said.
With all the criticism and the mindset of the people that government schools are not doing well, this new breed of young graduate teachers expressed their belief that they could make a difference and provide quality education in government schools as any other private school. However, they said they are demoralized by the apathy shown by the government in addressing their plight. “With the efforts that we are giving, the concerned department should do a little bit more on their part,” lamented one of the teachers.
It was informed that the aggrieved teachers have already approached the Naga Students’ Federation and the latter has assured to take up the matter with the department at the earliest.
“All in good faith, we are hoping that the concerned department will address our grievance soon,” an NRMSA teacher said optimistically.
