Meghalaya deficit teachers begin strike, call govt letter 'old wine'

Deficit school teachers in Meghalaya's Khasi and Jaintia Hills began their indefinite strike on Wednesday, November 11, after rejecting a last-minute letter from the state Education Department as a reworked version of assurances given more than a month ago.

Addressing teachers at Assamese Secondary School in Shillong on the first day of the agitation, Khasi Jaintia Deficit School Teachers Association (KJDSTA) president Boswell Pala said the department's letter reached the association on WhatsApp on Tuesday night. He said members opened it hoping for a breakthrough, but found it was essentially the department's October 8 letter, rearranged point by point to mirror the teachers' ultimatum.

DA arrears still 'under process'

On the long-pending Dearness Allowance and its arrears, Pala said the government was again saying the matter was "under process", the same phrase it used in October, when it had promised the money before the Puja holidays. He asked how long it could take to examine the financial implications.

Dispute over the provident fund scheme

The biggest sticking point is the teachers' Centralised Provident Fund (CPF). Pala said the 2023 scheme was framed after the government itself told the court that a scheme was needed under a 1969 state law governing the fund, and that it was agreed by both sides. Teachers moved the money in their individual CPF accounts into a common CPF account in 2024 under that scheme.

He accused the department of now pushing a 2026 scheme that would have teachers move the money back into individual accounts, calling it unworkable. He also rejected the department's argument that the 1969 Act does not fix the tenure of the fund's Board of Trustees, pointing out that the board's own bylaws set a three-year term, and said teachers wanted their own board rather than a seat on the one proposed by the government.

Recruitment and pressure on school committees

Pala said the department's claim that recruitment was running smoothly did not match what schools were reporting. According to him, some schools have not been allowed to advertise posts, and names of candidates selected through a proper process were awaiting approval at sub-divisional and district education offices.

Responding to the department's appeal to stay with students as the academic year draws to a close, he said teachers were out of classrooms only because the government had not delivered on its commitments. He also alleged that the department had written to School Managing Committees asking them to arrange for schools to run during the strike, which he described as an attempt to turn the committees against teachers.

What happens next

The strike affects deficit-system schools, which are run by private managements but receive government grants for teachers' salaries. The strike has been called as indefinite. College teachers' body MCTA had earlier backed the agitation.

There was no fresh response from the Education Department to the association's criticism at the time of publishing.