In probably one of the biggest agitations in the history of the State, the dharna of the Association of Shiksha Acharya/ instructors at protest site near Parade Ground entered the 1,357th day on Wednesday. The association is of the view now that the peaceful method of agitation deployed by them till date is not causing any effect on the Government which appears on a sleeping mode on the issue. The association is demanding that the Shiksha Acharyas (SA) should be converted into Shiksha Mitras (SM).
The President of the association, Devendra Singh Bisht threatened that the members of the association are now so desperate that they can take any self inflicting measures and the state government would be solely responsible for it. Braving all odds the members of the association are sitting on marathon Dharna form June 3, 2012 braving. Bisht informed that 910 Shiksha Acharyas (SA) and instructors await 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 two years. He informed that the state cabinet in its meetings held on February 2014, June 2015 and July 2015 had approved their conversion into SMs but the government has not issued the GO for it.
The Education Minister Mantri Prasad Naithani said that there is an eligibility issue of these candidates as the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) has mandated that they should now have a Diploma in Elementary Education certificate. However the president of the association Bisht said that there is no problem in converting them to SMs and the government had done it earlier also.
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 centers were closed. The state government later adjusted some SA 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 Rs 13000 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 among SAs that they too can get government job in later stages if the government converts them into SM now.