The utter haste at which the Government has tried to sort out the long pending Block Grant teachers’ issue smacks of foul play and lack of ground work that can lead to forming a Grant-In-Aid (GIA) policy to end the distress of the teachers.
The Thursday meeting has again fragmented the teachers’ federation under which a host of teachers’ bodies of various categories were untied to launch an agitation against the Block Grant policy of the State Government and replace it with the age-old system of GIA. But what was found was that after long 43 days of silence during which the schools starting from primary to secondary and Madrassa were locked by the teachers that resulted in disruption of studies in 4,000 schools driving the fate of several lakhs of students into uncertainty, the Government that long denied to give GIA under financial constraints came out with an understanding with the agitating teachers and in queer change of pitch said it was ready to fulfill the demands of the teachers for GIA. While the meeting has satisfied one group of teachers and convinced them to end their stir and unlock their schools and start teaching, the very ambivalence in the whole arrangement has been picked up by another group of teachers. They said that the agitation would continue till there was clarity and the Government came up with a transparent GIA policy.
Observers of the development, however, smell something fishy in the new reconciliation between the Government and the teachers. It was heard some days ago that the Chief Minister had asked the panel of Ministers on Block Grant to solve the impasse soon and that is why the panel and a few close Ministers and MlAs of the Chief Minister held the meeting which sat for two times to come to a conclusion on the issue. The first meeting was non-conclusive and the teachers’ bodies had not been invited to it, while the second meeting somehow came down to a patch-up where the teachers’ representatives were present.
Many suspect that the hasty meetings were held before the BJD launches its village level campaign from October 2. The BJD has planned to continue the drive for over a week where the Chef Minister and other top leaders are to hit the streets in the rural belts with a view to make people aware of the achievements of the State Government and achieve a measure of image makeover especially after the ruling party has been cornered over a host of issues starting from Nabakalebar mess, fake Babas, infant deaths to drought. The party knows that carrying out such a drive when the people at the grassroots are denied basic amenities like education would be a tough job. Hence, the quick fix to restore normalcy and start the schools.
The School and Mass Education Minister’s fumbling on the decision after the meet made him and the State Government a laughing stock, especially when he himself was not clear about the GIA policy that is going to be implemented from 2016-17 financial year. All he was saying was there was an agreement to improve the present Block Grant policy under the financial capability of the Government. Further, the Government announced to include 300 plus schools under Block Grant fold. When the agitation is to end Block Grant policy once and for all, the Government’s decision to continue the policy has exposed its skin.