Going by the trend it seems like teachers working under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and government of Arunachal is playing game of cat and mouse. Every now and then the SSA teachers go for pen down strike seeking fulfillment of their demands. State government initially ignores the strike and when the matter go out of control, they starts to negotiate with striking teachers and finally the strikes are called off with the promise of fulfilling the demand placed by the SSA teachers. In the last few years this cycle has been repeated on several occasions with no concrete result.
The main demands of SSA teachers are enhancement of salary at par with regular teachers under the Director of Elementary Education and in compliance with the 7th CPC, along with gazette notification and batch wise regularization. Once again the SSA teachers who were on warpath with state government called off strike on Tuesday after govt representative assured to fulfill their demands. The decision of teachers to end strike is appreciable. The strike has badly affected the functioning of Govt School across the state. In several districts the half yearly examinations could not be conducted due to the strike. However this is a short time measure and if state govt fails to fulfill the demand, there are chances that SSA teachers might again take the path of agitation. In order to avoid such awkward situation the state government should properly address the demand placed by teachers and work out a long term solution which is acceptable to everyone. The SSA teachers also need to understand that government will not be able to fulfill all their demands. Both the sides will have to work out a win-win solution in the greater interest of the state.