Do not overburden teachers with non teaching activities

When we talk of Elementary School teachers working under budget head of “Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan” erstwhile Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in our state of Meghalaya about their personal financial situations we see how ‘wage stagnation’ has affected their day-to-day lives. SSA teachers are facing the same conditions like in the past of not getting their salary on time including low pay and crumbling facilities.

Talking of the current scenario, the reality is we SSA teachers have to spend a lots of our own income for our classroom and for imparting wisdom and knowledge to our dearest students apart of maintaining our families daily needs and requirements. For months SSA teachers are performing their duties without ‘pay’ and this situations goes up and becomes worst day-by-day. Time and again after three to four months teachers have to raise their voices for payment of their wages, it seems as it has become a habit to them and teachers are undervalued and if these environments continues, in the near future experienced teachers will leave the teaching profession. Lack of respect for teachers’ and lack of attention from the Government to solve and address teachers’ problems will forces them to seek alternative careers.

The education system in our State has created an atmosphere where teachers are reliant on others making the decision for them, although I feel very strongly that the current government has embarked on a productive path towards education sector, I do believe that educators must be more directly involved in policy – decisions making with a foundation based upon pedagogy rather than ideology.

As appears to be the case in the current scenario if the state government wants to retain a motivated and skilled teachers , the government need to ensure that teachers are not only recruited and trained, but also deployed to the areas where they are most needed. Regular salary, medical allowances, maternity leave and other allowances and benefits support in the form of professional development opportunities should be implemented to encourage teachers to remain in this profession.

State government should ensure and taking care of that teachers earn at least enough to lift their families and make their pay competitive with comparable professions. An attractive career and pay structure should be implemented as an incentive not only to few selected teachers category but to all categories of teachers in order to improve their overall performance.These incentives can also be used to recognize and reward teachers in remote areas and those who support the learning of disadvantaged students.

State government should also improve governance policies to address the problems of teachers. Government can also do more to address teachers’ absenteeism by improving teachers’ working conditions, making sure they are not overburdened with non-teaching duties.Teachers need the support of inclusive and flexible and well designed curriculum strategies to meet the learning needs of children especially children from disadvantaged groups. Policy-makers should ensure that early grade curriculum focus on securing strong foundation skills for all and are delivered in a language student easily understand.

It’s high time for the State Government to address the grievances of teachers’ and to work collectively together and find out a better solutions to these problems facing by teachers now and then in order to achieve the aims to provide quality education.