Of late, ANSTA units are singing choruses to bifurcate the school education into secondary and higher secondary sections without realizing the ground reality and rules governing the administration of School Education in the State and the Country. Firstly, with the recent formation of Government Higher Secondary School Employees Association and Nagaland Government Primary School Teachers Association, ANSTA has lost its relevance to claim as the sole Teachers Association in the State. The government of Nagaland should therefore derecognize ANSTA and change its nomenclature to that of Graduate teachers association. Because a section of teachers, namely, the Graduate teachers, cannot claim to be the voice of the whole teaching fraternity in Nagaland and dictate the government at its whims and fancies. The government must also review the aims and objectives of ANSTA and see whether their consistent move to jeopardizing the smooth functioning of the department is appropriate or not under the relevant service rules and democratic norms of a service association.
The government should also see whether ANSTA demand for bifurcation is based on rational analysis to improve administrative efficiency and academic results or to hoodwink the government for vested interest. The graduate teachers are on the false illusion that the department should be in their hands alone since they are the majority in the department, of which they are not. Among the primary, graduate and post graduate teachers, the primary sections have the largest number of schools and teachers. Likewise, looking from the grade of the officers, the higher secondary sections have more gazzeted officers than the graduate teachers even though the total strength of the graduate teachers is higher. Therefore, the illogical claim to bifurcate the school education basing on ANSTA demand does not hold any water and contravenes the national educational policy which is also tenable in the court of law.
Therefore, if at all bifurcation has to be done, it should be done according to thenational pattern of Elementary education from class 1-8, and Secondary education from Class 9 to 12. Nowhere in the country is school education department bifurcated between secondary education and higher secondary education. Secondary education simply means class 9-12. Moreover, if bifurcation is done according to national pattern between elementary section and secondary section, it will save crores of money annually as Post graduate teachers can teach class 9 – 12 without any hurdle. This will also improve performance and academic results as more qualified teachers would be teaching the secondary students. The pass percentage for government higher secondary schools in 2016 HSSLC examinations 2016 is 60 percent comparing to 32 percent pass percentage for government high schools in HSLC 2016. An old saying that “action speaks louder than words” is especially true in this case.
The current devolution of responsibilitiesin the directorate should also be done according to elementary and secondaryeducation and not as per present arrangement of school education and higher secondary education. School education covers all the primary, elementary and secondary sections. It also includes language, Hindi, adult literacy, planning, vocational and health education etc. Therefore, the contention of the graduate teachers that they should control all these sections is preposterous.
Whereas, 30 percent of all PGT posts are reserved for graduate teachers having requisite qualifications, no such benefit is accorded to the primary teachers for in-service absorption as graduate teachers. Therefore, in all fairness, 30 percent of the total post of graduate teacher should be reserved to the primary teachers having requisite qualification. This will provide an incentive as well as an avenue and opportunity for career progression. Such loopholes in basic structures of the department arises because of the influence and force exerted by some section in the department while framing of important rules and regulations. And to date, some sections are taking advantage of that. Under the present ANSTA assertion, no ex cadres, higher secondary and primary sections should occupy higher posts in the department which is highly detrimental for the smooth functioning of the department. Therefore, the government, under the able and visionary leadership of the present SchoolEducation Minister should iron out the differences keeping in mind the concerns of the various sections in the department and also to uphold the vision and mission of the state education department to deliver quality education in the state.
I MerenJamir
Kohima Nagaland.
