SSA central body submits representation to State Government

A Reporter

SHILLONG, May 27: The Meghalaya SSA School Association Central Body on May 18 submitted a representation to the State Government through the Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui giving their suggestion to include the ‘merging of SSA teachers working under budget head of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in Education Department on regular basis as per mandatory SSA & RTE norms’ in the State Education Policy 2018.

President of Meghalaya SSA School Association Central Body Aristotle C Rymbai said, the suggestion is based on the facts and guidelines mentioned in Para number 21, sub para 21.1 of SSA Manual on Financial Management and Procurement that the teachers under sanctioned post of SSA are to be appointed by Education Department as SSA is not separated but is an addition to States/UTs over and above the expenditure on elementary education.

Further, as per revise SSA norms issued by the Centre on January 1, 2014 an approved by Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister who is Chairman of the Executive Committee of National Mission for SSA in para 8 under “Additional teachers” sub para (i) stated that “State should maintain unified teaching cadre and no separate SSA Teachers is permissible”.

There will be no separate teachers as sanctioned by the Centre. Rather, all teachers are ultimately the responsibility of the State/UT’s which the recruitment and other service matters of teachers falls under the domain of State/UT’s Governments and the Central Government is only to provide support as per the availability of funds based on certain desirable guiding principles and required to be followed by the State/UT’s Government.

Due to vague nature of instructions, many States/UT’s including our State Meghalaya had appointed teachers under SSA under State Implementation Society on contractual basis though the said instruction of Ministry of Human Resources Development Govt of India were of appointment of teachers by Elementary Education of States/UT’s on same salary, allowances and service conditions as of State budget teachers, Mr Rymbai asserted.

Rymbai also mentioned as per SSA Framework for Implementation of SSA based on RTE Act 2009 in para 1.5 it is clearly clarified that SSA is not separate but aligned with RTE Act and norms of SSA have became norms of RTE Act and all norms of RTE Act became applicable to SSA including provisioning of teachers, so we urge the State Government to include our suggestion in the policy and to implement the mandatory norms of SSA and RTE Act 2009 in true spirit as mentioned Chapter 3 para 3.4 sub para 3.4.1 of the draft copy of Meghalaya State Education Policy 2018.

The Association also suggested that the State Government in order to streamline and create uniformity on the administrative functioning, amalgamation should be made.