Teachers of govt-aided schools in Meghalaya on strike

About 14,000 teachers of government-aided schools in Meghalaya have gone on a 14-day strike starting today in protest against the state government's delay to pay them on par with those in government schools.
Students of over 4500 government-aided schools in the state are at the receiving end with their teachers on strike.
School teachers have unanimously decided to join the protest and stay out of school in support of the general strike called by the Joint Action Committee of All Teachers' Association of Meghalaya (JACATAM) till September 4.
"The state-wide general strike was taken into consideration after the state government paid no heed to the demand of the teachers," JACATAM chairman ED Nongsiang said.

He said they had to resort to the strike as there were no signs that the state government was making any effort even to have a dialogue.
Stating that it was unfortunate that an extreme step such as this had to be taken, Nongsiang said, this also meant the government paid no heed to their demands although the strike was affecting the students.

Deputy Chief Minister in-charge Education department, RC Laloo, maintained that the government will only take a call on the demand after consulting the respective school managing committees.
According to Laloo, this was required as the teachers in those schools were not appointed by the state government but by the SMCs.

Earlier this month, the JACATAM had also staged a three-day dharna as the first and second phase of its agitations, in which thousands of students were affected as they were made to sit inside the classrooms.