GSSA delays renewal of contracts to 250 employees

Staff members say that payment of their monthly salaries have stopped

Panaji: The Goa Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (GSSA) has delayed the renewal of contracts of its 250-odd contract employees – teaching as well as non-teaching staff – which has resulted in stoppage of their salaries since past one month.

The highly placed government authorities however informed that these contract employees are required by the GSSA from the commencement of the new academic year, and their contract is generally from June to March, every year, with a break in the months of April and May.

“During the coronavirus pandemic, the Goa government had however decided to continue their contract throughout the year,” the authorities mentioned. 

The GSSA has office staff as well as teaching staff like Block Resource Persons (BRPs) and Cluster Resource Persons (CRPs), which are employed at the head office, Block Resource Centres in all talukas and District Project Offices in Panaji and Margao.

The GSSA teaching staff such as BRPs and CRPs is required to visit the schools in various talukas, inspect the teaching activities in these schools and prepare reports. Some of the staff members informed that their annual contract expires on March 31, every year, and is renewed in the first week of April.

“However, this year, the GSSA is yet to renew our contract,” they said, adding that therefore the payment of their monthly salary has stopped.

It was also informed that similar delay in renewal of contract had happened some 4-5 years ago, and at that time, the contract was renewed in the month of June.

Samagra Shiksha is a sector-wide development programme which subsumes the then existing centrally sponsored schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE) to help harmonising the implementation mechanisms and transaction costs at all levels, particularly in using state, district and sub-district level systems and resources, besides envisaging one comprehensive strategic plan for development of school education at the district level. It was launched in 2018.