Govt bid to reduce salary burden on exchequer
Shillong, May 27: In order to minimise the burden of teachers’ salary on the state exchequer, the education department has set a target to rationalise 600 government and Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) schools located next to each other within this year.
Currently, the state government spends over Rs 2,400 crore on payment of salaries to over 40,000 teachers of which only 7,000 are government teachers. In comparison, the annual salary expense for college teachers is only Rs 300 crore.
The rationalisation of 600 schools will be done in the first phase of the reform project, said commissioner & secretary in-charge Education, Vijay Kumar Mantri, on Tuesday.
Underscoring the need for the reform measure, the official pointed out that SSA school in principle is a government school and that two government schools cannot exist side by side.
The government has also encouraged private (deficit) schools, where teachers are paid government salary, to join the process of rationalisation.
“We have asked District School Education Officers (DSEOs) to rationalise in case a particular school doesn’t have students, then you shift and transfer the teacher to nearby school…,” Mantri said.
Responding to a query on dilapidated school buildings across the state, “Rs 2,400 crore is going only for salaries, so very little budget is available for improving infrastructure.”
“With the merger, we can have a manageable number of teachers… the salary budget will come down and we can spend more on infrastructure,” he said.
The official admitted poor condition of many school buildings where studying gets difficult during rains.
However, he informed that the department under the Asian Development Bank (ADB) scheme is taking up 65 schools for upgradation and building new classrooms.
Infrastructure of lot of schools were improved under first two phases of Mission Education, and more will be covered under the third phase and subsequent phases, he said.
