Editor,
‘Teaching is the one profession that creates all other professions’, says the adage. But in Meghalaya, the mother of all professions is being looked down and victimised by the government for the interest of the people in power.
Teachers in our society are among many others who have been deprived of all their basic rights by the government even though they lay the most conceptual foundation in a society.
From SSA to college teachers, the government turned blind eyes and deaf ears to almost every part of the issues and grievances faced by them.
Salaries, non-regularisation of post and non-revision of all other basic incentives are amongst the urgent and topmost issues which need immediate attention by the government besides others.
An instance can be cited in this context. The part-time lecturers of Kiang Nangbah Government College in Jowai were asked to attend the morning shift. For the last two to three years, these teachers have not received their salaries which were supposed to be reimbursed by the government once in a year. It is a paltry amount. These teachers too have families and children to feed, among other necessary things. However, they are not getting paid for all the hard work, the dedication and the devotion in teaching.
Mr Chief Minister and Mr Education Minister, is there anything much worse than a teacher attending to his/her students in an empty stomach? How do you expect good academic results when our very own teachers are starving?
While it is a very bold move by the government to accommodate maximum number of students in the college of which a first semester class itself would reflect a whooping number of 1,200 students, imagine the number of students in the morning section six semester courses.
This very college has recently got accredited by the University Grant Commission (UGC) as a Grade B college; doesn’t the morning section Lecturers also play an important role for such accreditation? How can they be treated as such?
The teachers of the morning section in the college deliver and impart education to the poor section of students who themselves have to attend to their works or day time jobs to sustain and support themselves and their families. Studying in the morning section is a blessing in disguise for such students to pursue their degree courses. The teachers — who are struggling hard to impart quality and standard education and teaching to the students, attending to other assignments and exams preparation — are being punished by the government for being responsible and dedicated to their duties and responsibilities.
It is desirable for any government to promote growth and development in its course of action, but compromising the very basic right of teachers? Is that even supposed to happen? This government has achieved things beyond possibilities in creating issues and victimising the powerless section of the society. Jaintia Hills in particular has faced drastic chaos and tantrums from this government, be it garbage drama to coal trafficking.
Ironically, the Education Minister himself hails from Jaintia Hills. His lack of closeness to his region distanced himself from the very problems knocking at his door.
Mr Chief Minister and Mr Education Minister, is it that teachers starvation is also a part of your 300 projects for the 50th statehood celebration? If not, kindly and immediately address this issue, just because some section of the society does not have the power to raise their voices, it does not mean that will give you all the rights to discriminate and deprived them of their salary. These teachers need to feed themselves before they feed all the knowledge of the world to our students.
OR Shallam,
Panaliar, Jowai
