On Monday morning, we were once again confronted with the distressing piece of information that teachers employed under the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) scheme in Nagaland have decided to go on strike against the government – this time, by boycotting classes. This extreme step from the teachers has been provoked by the state government’s failure to pay them their due salary pending since appointment. Which, in other words, translates as: the state government has hold to ransom 639 teachers in Nagaland by depriving them of their source of livelihood, since the past 5 to 6 months.
There is a back story to this, which merits repetition here. Advertisements for the RMSA teachers’ posts in Nagaland were first published in the newspapers in 2013. This was followed by a written examination for the same, conducted in the early part of 2014. Even after a period of year or so, the department concerned, for some curious reasons, did not call the selected candidates for viva voce examination. It was only in mid-2015 that they were called for the viva voce interview. The same year, in the month of November the results were declared. Appointment orders finally arrived in February this year, but only after the selected candidates had resorted to a series of very public and vocal protestations.
This background is important because today there is a very strong belief running among the RMSA teachers that they have been deliberately picked upon by the state government. Because, let us not sugarcoat it, for three long years the state government was put through some very embarrassing situations through this entire RMSA episode. And now, their failure to pay the teachers their due salary is construed by the former as an act of cheap payback. Which of course, is highly unlikely.
When the Modi government, in November last year, announced a change in the funding pattern of seventeen centrally sponsored schemes, the list included the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan as well as Mid-Day Meal scheme. Under this pattern the funding ratio between Delhi and respective the state government was computed at 60:40. RMSA was not in the list, even though for Nagaland and the other NE states, the funding pattern for centrally sponsored schemes is 90:10. And it is no secret that Nagaland has not been able to meet its share of 10% contribution. And years of failure to meet its share means Delhi has now stopped the funding entirely.
On top of that, we have created a system that creates artificial requirements in order to draw a fatter package from Delhi. A case in point is schools without students, or without the requisite number. Yet it is included in the government project reports. The flipside of this is that: more the amount of money from Delhi, so too is the share that the government of Nagaland must pay. And for a state that has no revenue generation of its own, it only means more trouble and further raise doubts about how exactly the state government is managing with its 10% share in all the schemes from the Centre.
The saddest part, however, is that today was the 12th Assembly Session of the NLA in which the sixty elected representatives could, and should, have discussed this issue. But the so-called “opposition-less” did not deem it fit to fight for the suffering teachers. They simply decided to go home after assembling for a marathon 15 minutes.
