Sarma assures educatiol volunteers of appointment

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, July 15: State Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma assured a delegation of the Educatiol Volunteer Association of Assam (EVAA) of issuing its members permanent appointment letters at a meeting in the city last night.

In order to bring back school dropout children back to the classroom, as many as 7,055 educatiol volunteers were appointed on contractual basis in as many special non-residential training centres (NRSTCs) set up in various areas in the State under Sarba Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) since 2011. However, the latest survey conducted by EVAA found 3,500 such volunteers. The educatiol volunteers rendered their service to teach school dropout children in such non-residential centres till they can be enrolled in regular schools. The educatiol volunteers were appointed for 11 months. However, their term was extended to 20 months later. However, after that their jobs were termited all of a sudden. Since then EVAA has been taking up the matter with the Education Department for the past four years, but to no avail.

It is worth mentioning here that the EVAA had handed over a memorandum to the State Education Minister on June 4, 2016 raising as many as five demands. The minister then sent the memorandum with a positive note to the SSA Mission Director instantly, besides assuring the EVAA of taking up the matter sympathically.

A delegation of the EVAA met the minister last night when the minister assured them of their permanent appointment.

In a statement issued to the press yesterday, EVAA general secretary Sheikh Abdullah said that ‘there is no difference between Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s words and action. We know that he does whatever he says’.

EVAA general secretary Shaikh Abdullah said that the education centres were set up with the aim of bringing the school dropout children to the regular schools in the state. “However, 95 per cent of the centres were closed by the district project officers without even looking into the matter if the children reading there have been enrolled in mainstream schools,” Abdullah said, and added: “We worked only at Rs 3,000 as wage per month.”

According to Abdullah, their demands are a verification of the number of educatiol volunteers in the State, permanent appointment of the volunteers as permanent teachers in lower primary schools or in vacant posts in the Education Department or holding a special TET as was done in the case of Shikha Mitras, besides fixing their salaries at Rs 15,000 per month and relaxing the upper age limit of their age.