Imphal, December 26 2009: All Manipur Education Volunteers' Welfare Association has called upon the authorities concerned to disburse pending honorarium of the education volunteers and other teaching-learning materials under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) within the current month.

In connection with the failure of disbursing honorarium of the education volunteers for more than one year now and the teaching-learning materials which has not been provided for this year, a joint meeting of the education volunteers was convened at Irabot Bhavan here today.

During the meeting, a pressure group christened as All Manipur Education Volunteers' Welfare Association has been formed.

The demands of the Association include disbursal of the pending honorarium of the education volunteers and teaching-learning materials, payment of equal honorarium to the volunteers in accordance to the guidelines of Central sponsored SSA and providing the requisite training facilities to the education volunteers from time to time.

Talking to mediapersons after the meeting, general secretary of the newly formed Association H Basanta informed that under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, education volunteers have been extending education to the children between 6 to 14 years of age, who could not afford to go to school or continue their studies, at various EGS centres.

However, the monthly honorarium payable to these education volunteers have not been disbursed since September last year.

On top of this, the learning-teaching materials for the students have not been provided for the current year, thereby causing lot of inconveniences to the volunteers in imparting education, he pointed out.

Furthermore, Basanta said that most of the students coming to the EGS centres are from poor families and could not afford to buy books.

However, inspite of repeated appeals made by education volunteers to the District Project Officer and the Additional Project Officers, teaching-learning materials have not been provided though it is already at the fag end of the current academic year, Basanta lamented.

Stating that there is disparity in the rate of honorarium given to the education volunteers by the Government, Basanta disclosed in some districts of the State, education volunteers are being given monthly honorarium of Rs 2000 and Rs 2500 in other districts.

However, in accordance to the rules and regulations of the Central Government, equal honorarium should be given to all the education volunteers, he demanded.

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