Speaker reviewing problems of educatiol institutions and teachers
By our Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, March 6: The crux of the problem in education in Assam is ‘meeting requirements’ as given in the new Act meant for provincialization of posts in educatiol institutes in the State.
This, which various teachers’ organizations have long been banking on, came out at the conference hall of the Assam Assembly on Tuesday when Speaker Hitendra th Goswami was taking stock of problems of teachers and students in the State. The stock-taking meeting, which began on Monday, is going to conclude on Thursday. It discussed the problems of secondary education on Tuesday. All stakeholders, including MLAs and leaders of various teachers’ associations of the State, are taking part at the review meeting.
The teachers’ associations squarely blamed it on the new Act – the Assam Education Provincialization of Services of Teachers and Re-organization of Educatiol Institutions) Act, 20l7 – for all problems they have been under. They blamed it on many criteria included in the Act as the major hurdles for many education institutes for privincialization of posts of their teachers and other staff. “We’ve been working for a long time. It is high time the authority provincialized our posts,” said a leader of a teachers’ association.
Leaders of teachers’ associations from Dima Hasao and Karbi Anglong revealed an altogether different story. They blamed it on the new provincialization Act that had been passed in 2011 and made effective in 2013 for bringing all districts of the State, including areas under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, under one umbrella. “There has been no provincialization of any school in the two hill districts since 2013 as none of the schools can fulfill the new criteria introduced in the new Act. The government did the blunder by bringing all areas of the State, including areas enjoying autonomy under Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, under one umbrella. However, when the matter was raised the Act was amended in 2017 ebling the two hill districts to frame their own Act themselves. The relevant Bill, however, is yet to be passed,” one of the leaders of the teachers’ associations from the hill districts said. The MLAs from the two hill districts present at the meeting also supported the view expressed by the teachers. The sensible Speaker then asked the MLAs and the teachers’ associations to hold talks separately and sort out the issue between them. Later on the MLAs and teachers’ associations from the two hill districts met on the issue.