The agitation by the All Nagaland Ad Hoc Teachers Group (ANATG) 2015 batch outside the Nagaland Civil Secretariat in Kohima entered its second day today.
The indefinite agitation is reported to continue till the government finds a way to fulfil the demand of the ANATG-2015 batch.
The aggrieved teachers show no sign of relenting at the moment. Some of the teachers brought along their babies to the protest site. Even those who were pregnant were seen participating in the protest outside the secretariat.
Addressing the media, ANATG 2015 batch spokesperson Bendang Ozukum said the government in their latest communique had stated that they were unable to regularize the teachers’ service due to the standing court case order. Ozukum, however, alleged that regularisation has happened in other different departments and that they have every bit of evidence to support their statement.
He questioned the state government on whether the court case stands only against the 1,166 of the ad hoc teachers.
Some teachers brought their children to the protest site.
Cautioning the state government of a situation where the ANATG central team could no longer control the composure of their general members, Ozukum requested the government to come to a conclusion at the earliest.
“If others can be regularised then why can’t the Ad hoc be regularized too. Over the years, we have struggled enough and even this time during this agitation as well, we have nursing mothers, pregnant ladies, individuals with their babies and I think if there is no response from the government at the earliest time possible, then the central team of the ANATG could face a situation whereby we won’t be able to maintain the composure of our general members.
“This is not at all a threatening message to the government but we request the government to understand that at the end of the day, we are all human beings and that there are certain levels of endurance, there are certain levels up to which we can bear and beyond which the human instinct takes over of what we may not even intend to do,” said the spokesperson of ANATG-15 batch.
Ozukum also pointed out the contradicting statements of the state government and the Advisor of School Education K T Sukhalu.
The advisor has stated that the government will try to resolve their issue at the earliest whereas the government has stated that regularisation is not possible due to the court standing order, Ozukum said. “It is a very dilemmatic event for the ad hoc teachers gathered here on which statement to stick and then base our next course of action.”
The teachers have come for regularisation which is their legitimate right: ANATG 2015 batch spokesperson.
Ozukum further said it was unfortunate that the government should tell the aggrieved teachers to go back to their own respective posting places and take up their jobs. On the contrary, he said, the teachers have come for regularisation which is their legitimate right. The teachers have no intention to go back and will fight till the last, Ozukum added.
When asked on the impact of the ongoing agitation on students, Ozukum said the 1,166 teachers were well aware of how the students were being impacted to a great extend and how this agitation was jeopardizing the education system specially in the school where they all work.
Recalling the 2018 agitation, he said, the teachers had considered all the pros and cons and had gone for the agitation during school vacation. However, now the teachers have come to such a point that they cannot always wait for the vacations to start so that they may not disrupt the students, Ozukum said.
“This time we cannot help but jeopardize in a way the ongoing exams or classes. I hope the people, the students as well as parents of our students will understand that there are certain limits as human beings to bear and [be] patient about. Despite knowing about the exams, the classes are going on, we have still decided to agitate,” he added.
Thavaseelan K, IAS, Principal Director of School Education, also spoke to a section of media on Tuesday and reiterated that the regularisation of the 1,166 ad hoc teachers was not possible due to the court standing order.
Thavaseelan stated it is not that the Department of School Education does not want to help the agitating ad hoc teachers but is constrained due to the court standing order.
He said the department is collecting the attendance of the teachers and as communicated, the department will be imposing the No Work, No Pay principle which will be reflected in their service books.
The Department of School Education is constrained due to the court standing order: Principal Director of School Education.
With regard to the allegation made by the ANATG 2015 batch of regularisation of service taking place in departments like Youth Resources, PWD and Home department, Thavaseelan said the department has not received any particular document of regularisation in the Youth & Resource department. However, in the case of PWD and Home department, the P&AR have responded that these are different cases and they are not exactly cases of regularisation, he said.
When asked on the state government being able to absorb the teachers of Centrally Sponsored Schemes like SSA and RMSA and not the ad hoc teachers, he responded by saying it is purely because of the standing court judgement.
If the court judgement is vacated, the state government will be able to consider the ad hoc teachers and regularise their service. However, unless and until the court judgement is vacated the state government is in no position to regularize their service, Thavaseelan said.
He also cautioned that the department would have to start issuing show cause notices to the agitating teachers if the agitation does not end.
Pointing out that the 1,167 teachers span across 100 plus schools across the state, he said the department was trying to ensure that classes were not affected as much as possible by requesting other teachers to come and take classes on behalf of the agitating teachers.
If the protest continues, the department will have to resort to further disciplinary action, the principal director added.
