[ Bengia Ajum ]
ITANAGAR, 1 Sep: The third language teachers of the state have lamented that they are not being paid the honorarium announced to them at the time of their appointment.
These teachers, who were already in service, were given the additional responsibility of imparting education in tribal languages with a promise of Rs 1,000 per month as honorarium. They were given one week of orientation training by the State Council of Educational Research & Training (SCERT). These teachers have warned that if they are not paid their honorarium, they will not perform their duty in this academic session.
The third language books for eight languages/scripts have been developed by the apex bodies of the respective tribes, and are being taught in the schools at present. The apex bodies include the Nyishi Elite Society, the Galo Welfare Society, the Idu Mishmi Cultural and Literary Society, the Cultural and Literary Society of Mishmi, the Tagin Cultural Society, the Tribal Welfare & Development Society (Changlang), and the Wancho Literary Mission, in collaboration with the SCERT, Itanagar.
But the teachers are not being paid their honorarium, depriving them of their hard-earned money.
Prof Nabam Nakha Hina, who was a member of the Nyishi third language textbook development committee, said that the failure of the government to pay honorarium raises a question mark over their intention to save tribal languages.
“First of all, this defeats the basic fundamental right under the Indian Constitution (equal pay for equal labour/works and dignity of the labour). It is also a clear defeat of the Government of India’s popular National Education Policy-2020 by reassuring the importance of ‘mother tongue’ and ‘vocal for local’. We also doubt the sincerity of the government in trying to save the dying tribal languages,” said Prof Hina.
He further said that there were three batches of Nyishi language teachers’ training – five days for each batch – for teachers “from various Nyishi inhabitant schools.”
“We as responsible citizens acted as resource persons and utilised every possible way and means to equip the Nyishi language teachers without being paid any remuneration for our work. The government committed remuneration of Rs 1,000 per month to these teachers, but now it has proven to be a false promise. The time has come for the Nyishi legislators, and various organisations, like the NES, ANYA, ANSU and AAPSU, to voice the citizens’ concerns by maintaining the true spirit of leadership,” he added.
Wancho Literary Mission executive director Banwang Losu informed that some teachers were paid honorarium for five months but it has been stopped since then. “First of all, the third language teachers were not given proper training, and now the government is not even paying proper honorarium to the teachers. It looks like this whole exercise of starting a third language subject in the schools has been done just for namesake,” said Losu.
Further, he alleged that examinations for the third language subjects were not even conducted. “With teachers not being paid on time, there is no enthusiasm on their part to teach students. In some cases, even classes for third languages have not been regularly conducted, due to which examinations were also not held,” he added.
He suggested to the government to conduct fresh recruitment of third language subject teachers, in the line of teachers being appointed for the Bhoti language.
Meanwhile, Education Minister PD Sona informed that the government is working on a mechanism to ensure early release of the honorarium of third language teachers. “They were paid honorarium till March 2024. For the remaining months, the department has placed the fund requirement, and by the end of September, the fund is expected to be released. After that, the teachers will get their honorarium,” said Sona.
