Sisodia requests Union education minister to extend contracts of SSA teachers

Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday wrote to Union education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, requesting him to extend the contracts of 2,766 teachers working in the national capital under the Centre’s Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) till March 31, 2021.

The SSA is a flagship programme of the government of India to support states and Union territories in developing and strengthening formal primary and upper primary education.

In his letter, Sisoida said, “I would like to draw your attention towards 2,766 teachers serving as contractual teachers under Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan in Delhi. Among them, 1,673 serve in schools run by the directorate of education, and 1,093 serve in schools run by east and south Delhi municipal corporations. Against the annual work plan and budget for the year 2020-21, proposed by the Delhi government in its meeting with the officials of the ministry of education, government of India, on May 27, 2020, the salary of contract teachers was approved only for six months and was conveyed to us on August 20, 2020, by the ministry.”

“All of these contractual teachers are central teachers eligibility test (CTET) qualified and till now, they are actively engaged in supporting the semi-online teaching-learning of students in their respective schools. Their six months’ service period was completed on January 19, 2021,” he said.

Sisodia, who is also the deputy chief minister of Delhi, said front-line workers, including teachers, have played a major role in the past year amid the Covid-19 pandemic. He said it will be unfair if any of them would be asked to leave their services at this point in time. “I urge you to kindly extend the financial support to these teachers till at least March 31, 2021, on the existing cost-sharing basis between the Union and the Delhi government,” Sisodia wrote.