Shillong, Aug. 24: Meghalaya teachers today decided to suspend their 11-day general strike from Friday after the government accepted most of their demands. The strike began on Monday and was supposed to continue till September 5.

However, provincialisation of service of teachers of all government-aided schools will not materialise as the government asserted its inability to meet this demand.

In a meeting with chief secretary K.S. Kropha, who invited the protesting teachers for talks here today, the government cited certain difficulties that made it unable to provincialise their service.

The teachers, who are representatives of the Joint Action Committee of All Teachers Associations in Meghalaya (JACTAM), wanted the government to provincialise the services of teachers of all categories of government-aided schools and raised other issues concerning education in the state.

Meghalaya has various categories of schools which include government, deficit, deficit pattern and ad hoc (government-aided) as well as private schools.

"During the meeting, various issues related to improving the conditions of the teachers were discussed and the government was committed to coming up with various initiatives," commissioner and secretary (education) Donald Philips Wahlang told reporters.

Making it clear that provincialisation would not be possible, Wahlang said some of the school managing committees have expressed reservations against any move to provincialise the service of teachers since the teachers were not appointed by the government. "Some of the committees said if the government goes ahead with provincialisation of the teachers' service, they may close down their schools," Wahlang said.

Most of the committees of government-aided schools feared that once provincialised, the government may take over all assets they have created, and the role of the committees would be limited as far as their control over the teachers was concerned.

Approval of the government is required only to ensure that the teachers are appointed by the committees according to the rules, he added.

Wahlang said the government has conveyed to the teachers about financial constraint that made it unable to provincialise their service at this time. He, however, said the government would initiate steps to provide social security to all teachers under deficit, deficit pattern and ad hoc (government-aided) schools.

"The government is in the process of undertaking a study on the new education policy and is expected to complete it within six months," Wahlang said.

Stating that enhancement grant to lower and upper primary Hindi teachers is in the process, Wahlang said the teachers were also assured that ad hoc schools with "good performance" would be upgraded to deficit system on merit in a phased manner.

The government vowed to facilitate granting of medical allowance to deficit teachers. It proposed to co-opt some representatives of the teachers' body in a discussion committee on educational system.

Asked about a one-year comparative study undertaken by officials of the state education department in Tamil Nadu, Kerela, Goa, Assam, and Sikkim on the issue of provincialisation of teachers' service, Wahlang said the study found out that the situation was different in these states.

"The situation is different because teachers in these states were appointed by committees with legal framework, whereas the government-aid schools in Meghalaya have been appointed by the committees without any legal framework," Wahlang said.

The joint action committee chairman, E.D. Nongsiang, told reporters that though they were unhappy with the outcome of the meeting, most of the points have been accepted by the government.

Appreciating the officials for their efforts in studying the issue related to provincialisation of teachers' service and working on the other demands, the teachers alleged that policy makers, including ministers and legislators, showed no concern for the improvement education and welfare of teachers in the state.

"Policy makers should have the will, and education being a state subject, the state government can also legislate a law on the issue of provincialisation," a teacher said.

The teachers decided to meet Union human resource minister Prakash Javadkar to apprise him of the overall education scenario in the state. They would also hold general meetings at Tura and Shillong soon to chalk out plans to push their demand forward.

"We will continue with our demand to provincialise till it is fulfilled," another teacher said.