Shillong: Teachers under the banner of the Federation of All School Teachers of Meghalaya (FASTOM) began their indefinite sit-in-protest here in Meghalaya’s State capital on Wednesday to mount pressure on the government to fulfil their demands.
State’s opposition Trinamool Congress (TMC) has condemned the State government’s apathy towards the teachers. Five FASTOM members staged their sit-in-protest outside the Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBOSE) office and decided to continue with their protest until their demands are met.
The sit-in agitation was launched a day after the teachers carried out a silent protest march from outside Shillong Raj Bhavan voicing their demand to comply with their demands.
The teachers are demanding that the salary of the teachers are increased by Rs 18,000 and 5 percent increment every year for all ad-hoc categories and upgradation of adhoc schools to deficit-grant schools.
State TMC president, Charles Pyngrope said that the government should focus on paying the teachers instead of paying the legislators.
“The state government should have a good fiscal management team to advise the government on how to increase revenue without having to resort to means that may be dangerous to public life or the environment,” Pyngrope said.
Currently, the monthly salary of a lower primary school teacher is Rs 12,000. The pay of an upper primary, a secondary and a higher secondary school teacher is Rs 16,000, Rs 20,000 and Rs 24,000 respectively.
There is no additional allowance for teachers in each of these categories. There are over 7,090 teachers in 860 adhoc schools including lower primary, upper primary, secondary and higher secondary level.
