GUWAHATI: The All Assam M.E. Teachers’ Association (AAMETA) has raised the demand for the appointment of permanent head teachers for schools under in-charge head teachers.
In a statement issued to the media, the president of the association, Dwipen Sarma, said, “Over 70 percent of schools in the state have had in-charge headmasters for six to seven years. Keeping an eye on the interests of schools and their students, these head teachers have been rendering this service without any additional benefits. We have taken up this issue right from the Director of Elementary Education to the Education Minister through memoranda. We have also had talks with them on this issue, but to no avail. We have even drawn the attention of the Chief Minister to the issue through a memorandum. However, because of the Model Code of Conduct of the recent Lok Sabha poll, the issue had to be kept in cold storage for four months. We have raised the demand afresh as the model code of conduct is no longer in force in the state.” Sarma also raised the demand for providing regular teacher status to the tutors appointed in 2021 and bringing them under the Old Pension Scheme (OPS).
Meanwhile, the association welcomed the state education department’s decision to permanently retain 35,530 teaching and non-teaching posts in elementary and secondary schools. These posts were created in 2013, when the venture schools where they had been working were provincialized under the Assam Venture Educational Institutions (Provincialization of Services) Act, 2011. Since these posts were provincialized in the name of the teaching and non-teaching staff, such posts got abolished along with the retirement of the persons holding them. That led to a decrease in the number of teachers in schools. This retention of posts will pave the way for the recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in these schools, Sarma said.
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