The association of Shiksha Acharya or instructor, which are on 1247-day-long marathon dharna near parade ground, has threatened to adopt desperate measures in support of their single point agenda of converting them to Shiksha Mitras. The members of the association are sitting on an indefinite dharna from June 3, 2012.
The president of the association, Devendra Singh Bisht told The Pioneer that 910 Shiksha Acharyas (SA) and instructors are waiting for the elusive Government Order (GO) to convert them into Shiksha Mitras (SM).
He said that it is unfortunate that the government is not releasing GO despite approval of cabinet three times in past one and half years. Bisht said that it appears that the government is not taking them seriously as the members of the association are adopting a non violent method of agitation. “I want to remind the government that it was our association which first of all started the overhead water tank and tower scaling method of agitation in Uttarakhand and our former president Puran Singh Rana attempted self immolation following which the state government conceded and appointed 1,973 SA as SM. Now we are adopting peaceful method of agitation but it appears that it is high time we change our method of protest to waken up a sleeping government,” he said. The President of the association claimed that the agitation completed 1,247 days on Sunday which makes it the longest agitation in the history of Uttarakhand.
The SAs were employed to bring out of the school children into the fold of elementary education under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). For children like those living in streets some Alternative and Innovative Education (AIE) centers were also opened under SSA and instructors were posted in them.
The Government employed 2883 SA and Instructors till 2008 under SSA and they were given a paltry wage of Rs 2500 per month.
later, the Government decided to shut the AIE centers in a phased manner from the year 2008 and by March 31, 2012 all such centres were closed. The State Government later adjusted some S A as SM in primary schools of the state. Now the remaining 910 candidates are demanding to be adjusted as SM.
The Shiksha Mitras are given a monthly stipend of Rs13,000 by the State Government. It is worth mentioning here that the state government had recently absorbed SMs serving in the schools of the state in the primary teacher cadre prompting fresh hope into SA that they too can get government job in later stages if the government converts them into SM.