Two major student organisations of Nagaland on Friday said that they have decided to launch an indefinite agitation from October 12 demanding regularisation of services of over 2,730 Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) teachers appointed in 2010 and 2013. The Naga Students' Federation (NSF) and the Eastern Nagaland Students' Federation (ENSF) told a joint press conference that they are forced to take the path of agitation as the state government did not take any step to fulfil an agreement signed in this regard two years ago.
NSF president Ninoto Awomi and ENSF chief Sepili L Sangtam said that they had on September 2 served a 30-day ultimatum to the government to honour the pact and it expired on Friday. The agreement on regularising of the services of 2010 and 2013 batches of SSA teachers was signed between the School Education Department and the Nagaland Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Teachers' Association (NSSATA) in presence of the two student bodies on June 12, 2018, the NSF president and ENSF chief said.
The NSSATA had called off its more than a month-long agitation following the signing of the agreement. The NSSATA demanded that their services be regularised, saying that they were appointed as regular employees and are entitled to get payments and benefits as received by Nagaland government teachers. Education department officials, on the other hand, said that they are trying to solve the problems. The government did reply to their ultimatum but it was a list of "excuses" to further delay the matter, the two student leaders alleged.
The government said, among others, that finance and school education departments would work out the detailed financial implications on account of the mainstreaming of SSA teachers. The two student leaders said that they had been waiting for the government to take appropriate steps to fulfil the agreement and had met the principal secretary of the department at least twice in 2019 to remind the official about the pact.
A Cabinet meeting held on October 3, 2018, decided to regularise their services and had issued a Cabinet memo to this effect two days later, but no progress has been made in this connection since then, Ninoto Awomi and Sepili L Sangtam said. They said that since it was because of their involvement that an agreement was reached between the government and agitating teachers, the federations held a consultative meeting and decided to pursue the matter again.
