Nagaland Ad Hoc Teachers Shift Protest To Education Directorate

The All Nagaland Ad hoc Teachers Group (ANATG)-2015 batch on Friday shifted its hunger strike venue to the Directorate of School Education, intensifying the stir to press for its demand for service regularisation of 1,166 members.

On Friday, which is also the third day of the agitators' hunger strike, the agitation entered its ninth day.

According to ANATG-2015 office-bearers, the government's purported inability to offer a firm timeframe or policy commitment on the protracted issue of service regularisation prompted the decision to change the location.

The group, which has been carrying out sustained protests since February 4, said the shift of the agitation site to the DoSE premises is aimed at directly engaging the Directorate and pressing for immediate administrative and policy intervention.

At the Directorate, the aggrieved teachers were seen holding banners and placards, and raising slogans in support of their demand.

The group reaffirmed that their regularisation is still waiting despite years of service, the relevant credentials, and passing the required exams.

On Thursday evening, the agitators received a formal statement from the Directorate asking them to end the current cease-work and return to work in the best interests of the students.

In the letter, Principal Director Shashank Pratap Singh acknowledged the receipt of various representations submitted by ANATG-2015 and appreciated the role played by ad hoc teachers in sustaining school education across Nagaland, particularly in remote and underserved areas.

However, the Directorate also expressed "grave concern" over the agitation causing prolonged suspension of academic activities in several government schools.

It assured the agitators that the legitimate demands of ANATG were under active consideration and that high-level meetings had been convened to address the matter in a time-bound manner.

The letter stated that the Personnel & Administrative Reforms (P&AR) Department had sent a request for the submission of more documents about 235 ad hoc employees (61 Group A & B and 174 Group C & D) so that the screening committee could review them and consider regularising their employment.

However, the ANATG-2015 office-bearers stated that they would not grant the request to halt operations at this time, arguing that a comprehensive approach must be used to regularise all 1,166 members.

They stated that before determining the next course of action, more talks would be held with all members.