Shillong, Sep 29: Adhoc school teachers under the banner of Federation of Adhoc School Teachers of Meghalaya (FASTOM) have decided to continue their protest even as the state government assured of examining their demand for upgrading the ad hoc schools to deficit system.
The agitating teachers, who are on an indefinite sit-in demonstration for the past 192 hours, spoke about their resolve to continue the protest after their meeting with Commissioner & Secretary in-charge Education Vijay Kumar Mantri on Monday.
“He (Mantri) promised (us) to properly study the demands of the federation,” FASTOM publicity secretary EG War said.
This decision to continue the protest was taken after a FASTOM delegation expressed dissatisfaction over a recent meeting held with education minister Lahkmen Rymbui, who had said the government would first examine the proposed streamlining of multiple school categories before taking up their demand.
The adhoc teachers have resolved to stick to their demand as the proposal for Meghalaya Education Grant (MEG) is still at the initial stage.
“As adhoc teachers, we do not really know whether it will be implemented or not at the end of the day. So, we will stick to our main demand, which is the upgradation of ad hoc schools to the deficit system or deficit pattern,” FASTOM vice-president S Jungai said.
The agitating teachers had expressed frustration over the lack of official communication from the government despite sending six reminders to the Chief Minister’s office.
“We will continue until the chief minister responds to our demands,” they said.
