The State government has appealed to Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) and Eastern Naga Students’ Federation (ENSF) to reconsider and withdraw their proposed agitation from October 12 in view of the exercises undertaken and progress made in mainstreaming SSA and RMSA teachers (2010 and 2013 batches) and the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic situation.
Making this appeal on behalf of government, chief secretary in-charge J Alam further felt that taking up internal service matters of government employees through public agitation was not a healthy precedent as this would cause hardships to people at large and adversely affect delivery of public service.
He requested them to appreciate the progress made and let the required procedures be observed by various arms of the government.
Earlier, Alam convened a meeting of the departments concerned at the conference hall of secretariat, Kohima on Wednesday to review the progress in mainstreaming SSA and RMSA teachers of 2010 and 2013 batches into the School Education Cadre.
The SSA and RMSA teachers were appointed by the directorate of school education in 2010 and 2013 against posts created under the Centrally-sponsored schemes Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA).
Based on the recommendations of the committee constituted to study the nature of recruitment and appointment of these category of teachers, the State Cabinet on October 5, 2018 agreed in principle to mainstream SSA and RMSA teachers of 2010 and 2013 batches into State Education Cadre, while directing the department to club/merge unviable schools and give golden handshake to under-qualified and untrained teachers
During the meeting, the School Education department reported the actions taken to fulfil the conditions stipulated and shared the decisions taken at a meeting on September 14, 2020 that were communicated to NSF and ENSF on September 23, 2020.
The decisions included examining and clearing the seniority list of SSA and RMSA teachers of 2010 and 2013 batches by personnel and administrative reforms (P&AR) department, estimating financial implication of mainstreaming and concurrence by finance department, freezing of 75% vacancies of teachers occurring annually under the directorate of school education and submission of the proposal for mainstreaming to the cabinet.
The meeting was informed that P&AR department had already accorded clearance to the seniority list, while finance department had examined the financial implications.
It was pointed out that despite the shortfall in financial support from Government of India towards salary/remuneration of the teachers and financial constraints of the State government, the SSA and RMSA teachers of 2010 and 2013 batches were already being given scale pay with regular increments, for which the State government had already incurred a cumulative expenditure of more than Rs 300 crore. And on account of mainstreaming, the State government would further incur an additional expenditure of about Rs 82 crore. This was stated in a press release by school education special secretary.
As part of their phase-I agitation, NSF and ENSF on October 5, announced that state-wide bandh of vehicular movement would be imposed on government registered vehicles (NL 10 and NL 11) starting October 12, 2020.
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