Ball in State government's court: JACATAM

Provincialization of Meghalaya adhoc teachers
FROM a Correspondent
Shillong, May 7: Teachers under the banner of the Joint Action Committee of All Teachers’ Association of Meghalaya (JACATAM) on Saturday informed that their proposal relating to their various demands has been forwarded from the Education department to the State government.
Speaking to reporters, JACATAM president ED Nongsiang said, “The director of education department has informed us that our proposal relating to our various demands has been sent to the State government.”
According to him, earlier in the year 2014, a report was sent after a comparative study, but in February 29, 2016, the association’s proposal was mainly based on the Tamil du Model.
“According to the director of Education department, under this proposal the services of teachers which are under government aided schools will come under one umbrella right from primary up to higher secondary,” he said, adding that the teachers which are under the provincialized school will be getting the scale pay as at par with their counterparts in the government school.
He also said that the allowances will also be as per government schools, including the pensiory benefits and other schemes.
 “Since there is no promotion in the provincialized schools, there will be the Assured Carrier Progressive Scheme (ACPS), where the scale of the teachers will be enhanced after specified years of their services,” he said, adding that the teachers will also get the medical reimbursement just like the teachers of the government schools. Teachers under provincialized schools will be exempted from transfers unlike government schools.
Informing that this proposal will apply for all government aided school, which includes the adhoc, deficit patterns, deficit system and SSA upper primary school, Nongsiang also said that there will be separate rules which will be known as the Meghalaya Provincialization School Services Rules which will be formulated by the state government while the magement will frame rules for their respective schools based on the policy and guidelines of the government.
He further said that estimated expenditure will be more than Rs 500 crore and project estimated if this system of provincialization of teachers is implemented will come to Rs 900 crore with a deficit of only Rs 3.50 crore from the present expenditure.
It may be noted that over 13,000 adhoc and deficit teachers under JACATAM are pressing for provincialization of the teachers’ services.