Academician calls to equip with vocational skills

KOHIMA — Lamenting that people today have lost critical thinking with the advent of new technology, the president of Nagaland Education Association (NEA), Dr. Zavise Rume, has called for equipping with 21st-century vocational skills.

“We don’t have time to think. We are too book-oriented and we have lost critical thinking,” Dr. Rume said while speaking at a panel discussion on ‘National Education Policy 2020 and pedagogic reforms in Nagaland’ held at State College of Teachers Education (SCTE) in Kohima on Friday. The event was organised by Nagaland Education Association (NEA). He lamented that India today is losing a lot of critical thinking because of technology.

NEP emphasises on reduction of curriculum activities and gives more time to critical thinking and analysis. The new policy has left a lot of responsibilities on teachers to implement the pedagogical reforms as mandated in the new policy.

Dr. Rume stated that teachers should learn how to teach children to be proud of themselves so as to develop a vibrant society. To make a knowledgeable society, one has to have their own basis and improve them, he said.

“Pedagogy reforms are required to renew the approach to learning through experiential, discovery and explorations etc. It must reduce dependency on textbooks and create learning in a fun way. Education is approached through multidisciplinary subjects and educators are given these challenges to fulfil it,” he added.

One of the panellists, who is also an associate professor of SCTE, Dr. Bendangyapangla, opined that pedagogy reforms in school education must evolve to make education more experiential, holistic, and integrated. According to her, such reform was necessary due to changes taking place in the society.

“When the world is changing, one cannot hold on to the old ones. We have to rise up above and align to the changes. If we hold onto the old policy, it is detrimental for the children,” she argued and added one has to have an open mind and go ahead.

While pointing out that pedagogy is strongly influenced by children’s psychology, she stated that teachers are expected to be acquainted with children’s educational psychology.

She also mentioned the practical challenges of the policy implementation in the state. The first point was that one does not find an institute in Nagaland which offers and prepares teachers for preschool, which is an important stage. She said this needs to be looked into. Another point, she noted, was whether the state has sufficient resources to bring about blended learning and when can 18000 teachers in Nagaland be equipped.

Dr. Prasanjit Pal, assistant professor of Teacher Education at NU, Kohima campus, and panellist of the discussion, gave an overview of the new policy and its emphasis. He was of the view that people were “over-enthusiastic” about the new policy and called upon the gathering to observe the state’s educational scenario.

Nagaland has one central university, three private universities, one institute of national importance, 66 colleges, five technical colleges, and three nursing colleges. Only 30 out of 66 colleges are accredited and two of them got A++. Nine per cent of colleges don’t have students more than 100. This shows the constraints and challenges of the colleges in Nagaland.

“Keeping all these in mind, one will see how fictional the new policy is,” he observed.

Pointing out more challenges, he said access to higher education is “very much limited” in the state when NEP is talking about setting up big universities in districts. He further pointed out the challenges of developing languages in the absence of written scripts.

Dr. Elizabeth Walling, principal of SCTE, said the NEP clearly mentioned that all teachers should be grounded in Indian culture and ethos. She also underlined the practical challenges in implementing the new policy in the state.

She further urged the educator to really think about the new policy adding that teachers are given the freedom to teach students.

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