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Our Correspondent
Kohima, Sep. 5 (EMN): Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on Monday called upon the teachers, community and government to work together to ensure a more ethical and empathetic future citizen.
He said this while addressing the state-level Teachers' Day celebration at Capital Cultural Hall in Kohima.
"Let us all -- government, community and teachers -- work collectively to ensure a more educated, a more skilled, a more productive, a more disciplined, a more ethical and empathetic future citizen.
“Teaching is a very noble profession. Amongst the people who leave an impact in a person’s lives, teachers stand out the most. Their role is not limited to providing only academic knowledge to students. The students and youth are entrusted to teachers during the most impressionable age in their lives,” Rio said.
Besides academics, students also look up to their teachers to find their ethical and moral compass, and learn values that would guide them throughout their life, he said.
‘Teachers have an extremely important role in making their students responsible and contributing citizens of the society. They are shaping the future of the society, state, and country,’ he added.
The chief minister said the job of teachers have become even more challenging with expectations increasing, while maintaining that they have to keep pace with new modes of teaching and technology.
In the past, teachers might not be qualified or trained but most of them had a strong sense of ethics, dedication, integrity, and discipline, he said.
‘This left students with a deep sense of respect and admiration for their teachers. It is these qualities that earned them respect’, he said.
The traditional learning environments such as the dormitory morungs, sochums, etc., gave traditional value systems that have kept the society together and made it resilient and strong, he said.
Rio called upon the teachers to introspect and provide students the skills and stronger value system.
Although passing examinations is important, one needs to imbibe the youth with skills and values that are not necessarily prescribed in the syllabus, he said, adding that these are provided by the positive environment of learning that teachers build in their respective schools.
‘School Education department is one of the largest departments of the state with the second largest number of employees. Nagaland has a much better teacher-student ratio of 1:12 than the national average of 1:27. In the government schools, the ratio is still better at 1:7. With this large number of government teachers, it is reaching out to the remotest of villages as well. The students in villages do not have an option of a private school. The role of these teachers is, therefore, extremely important’, he said.
He lamented that the performance of the government schools, year after year, has not come up to the expectations while private schools, though located mostly in urban and easily accessible areas, have been doing much better.
Rio urged the government teachers, who are no less capable than the private teachers, to introspect and see how it can match or beat the performance of private schools.
“When governments in other states can outmatch their private counterparts and show consistent improvement, there is no reason why we should not be able to do it,” he said.
While acknowledging teachers' contributions on the occasion of Teachers’ Day, he also said that is a time to introspect, retrospect, and plan for the future.
Government is starting a Digital Teachers' Diary with an aim to enable government teachers to record their progress in classroom teaching-learning transactions. With the tool in place, he expressed hope that the teachers and the department will improve performance.
He also expressed hope that the launch of Teachers Attendance Monitoring System (as part of the World Bank programme) will address the practice of proxy and improve the attendance of teachers.
“We need to look inside ourselves and answer to our conscience as to why such practices take place. We should self-regulate to stop these practices. We, in the department, should also have a zero tolerance for such misconducts,” he said.
While admitting that the School Education department has its own set of problems that has been accumulated over the years, he said many pending issues have been resolved despite the state government's financial constraints and assured to continue to push the department to perform even better in the days to come.
‘The state government is also working towards strengthening the teacher recruitment process by making it more transparent and giving equal opportunity to all candidates desirous of taking up teaching. Training for teachers is also being strengthened,’ he said.
Advisor of School Education, KT Sukhalu informed that there are more than 31,000 teachers serving in government, private and central schools in the state.
Crediting dedicated teachers for the present progress of the state, he said they have shaped and moulded the leaders and thinkers in the society.
‘Teachers must be appreciated for consciously opting to take up the noble profession, nurturing the destiny and future of the state. They are required to serve in the remotest areas, bringing education and enlightenment to children and families, who otherwise would not have the benefit of it. Most of the teachers continue to serve sincerely wherever they are posted. More than ever, it needs teachers to be exemplary role models who can inculcate in students not only knowledge-seeking behaviour but also instill virtues of truth, hard work, honesty, simplicity, sensitivity to needs of fellow beings and nature,’ he said.
‘But unfortunately, there are many teachers in our government schools who have not seen classrooms for years but have been keeping proxies. Such teachers not only are bad role models but also compromise the future of students, of generations and of the future of the state. Such activities should be condemned and reported upon,’ he said.
He added that the department has already started taking actions against such teachers.
‘It is not only a criminal act but also an act of great moral failure. If there are teachers who do not want to serve, they should immediately resign rather than sacrificing the future of the students,’ he said.
He also informed that qualified RMSA/SSA teachers of 2010 and 2013 have been mainstreamed into the state cadre, bringing their long demand to a logical end and that it will provide a morale boost to these teachers to serve with more focus.
The advisor said the department will also explore new areas to build complementary skills for personal and professional growth of the teachers, which is critical for their development and emotional wellbeing.
‘Teachers are also expected to reap the benefits of improved governance and a strengthened Education Management Information System under the World Bank project. With the implementation of NEP 2020 in the state, the department envisages appreciable progress in the near future,’ he informed.
“In the fast changing world of today where new ideas, values and concepts are rapidly replacing the old ones, our teachers will need to upgrade and recalibrate to deliver. Just as we encourage our students to recognise their unique strengths and potential, and encourage a spirit of lifelong learning, so too I urge all the teachers and educators to also do so,” he added.
During the occasion, 20 teachers -- both private and govt. schools -- were given the state-level teachers’ award.
The chief minister also felicitated the top 50 rank holders of HSLC 2021 and 2022 examination under the Chief Minister Meritorious Scholarship Fellowship which was instituted to recognise merit and provide financial support to meritorious students.
A short video on National Awards to Teachers 2022 awardee, Mimi Yhoshü, Head Teacher of GMS Officers’ Hill, was also screened during the programme.
The department of School Education has announced September 6 (Tuesday) a holiday for all schools – government and private -- in Nagaland on account of Teachers’ Day, which was celebrated on September 5.