Community participation required to improve education system — Thejawelie

Our Correspondent
Kohima, Jan. 31 (EMN): Deputy Commissioner of Kohima and Chairman of District Mission Authority, Samagra Shiksha, Kohima, Gregory Thejawelie on Monday called for the participation of all stakeholders to improve education system in the state, saying that it has a long way to go despite the efforts being made.

He said this while addressing a ‘community awareness and sensitisation on Children with Special Needs (CWSN), National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN) Bharat, out-of-school children (OoSC) and Vocational Education (VE)’ programme organised by Samagra Shiksha Nagaland, in Kohima.

Calling on everyone — community, village councils, churches, student bodies, organisations etc. – to participate for quality education, Thejawelie said: ‘We can’t just leave it to students, parents, and teachers or to the department alone. These are areas where it involves various stakeholders. Because all these are related as far as the working for the interest of education is concerned. If that can be done then, we would be able to witness holistic improvement in the overall education in Nagaland.’

Maintaining that everyone has a role to play, he said shying away from this responsibility is to let the children and the future generation suffer. If the policies and programmes of education are implemented in a sincere manner, the ultimate outcome would be quality education, which will reflect on the students, he added.  

Enrolment in govt. schools

Deputy Mission Director of Samagra Shiksha, Nagaland, Kelhikha Kenye observed that many children and parents are unaware of the facilities and policies of the government. On this, he said that churches can be a good platform to disseminate such programmes.

He said that according to the national achievement survey report 2017, almost 13 to 18% of students from Class 3, 5 and 8 are below basic learning levels, and only 39 to 53% achieved proficiency.

‘Years ago when SSA was launched, the government constructed school buildings in the hope that children enrolment would improve. However, children enrolment and learning outcome ratio in the government schools dip year after year,’ he lamented.

Speaking on the topic NIPUN Bharat-the objective of which is to achieve foundational literacy and numeracy in line with National Education Policy 2020, he urged all not to miss the bus.

It was informed that the Samagra Shiksha Nagaland had conducted a baseline survey in all the districts, from class 1 to 3 in 205 schools, and reached out to about 10,000 children in connection with the Centre’s new policy and that the SCERT would review the survey and roll out the programmes accordingly.

Understanding of disability

Speaking on inclusive education, the state co-ordinator of Samagra Shiksha, Sesulu said that every child has the right to education and all schools need to be prepared to include and teach students from all backgrounds and abilities including children with special needs (CWSN).

She called for a change in mindset on myths and misconceptions about disability. Some of the common misconceptions about persons with disability, she cited were, ‘it is a curse from God, superstitions, CWSN cannot learn or do anything, they can neither go to school nor grow up and get jobs’.

She challenged the people to rethink one’s understanding of disability. ‘Given the appropriate support, PwDs are capable of leading successful and productive lives. People’s negative attitude stops them from receiving the chance they need to excel and therefore, one needs to start giving the proper support, beginning from the time of schooling. The earlier we start to provide the needed support, the sooner we can enable them,’ she added.

A total of 2882 CWSN were identified during 2020-21 in Nagaland, out of which 2321 were enrolled in school and 561 were home-based education. A total of 49 special educators are there across the state, she informed.

5034 vocational education students

State Co-ordinator of Samagra Shiksha, Nagaland, Imdangjungla Jamir informed that there are 5034 vocational education (VE) students in 53 schools in Nagaland. Total VE trainers (teacher) stands at 58 and 30 new trainers are on the verge of recruitment, while there are nine trades (subjects) at present in VE.

Some of the trades (subjects) included agriculture, automotive, beauty and wellness, electronics and hardware, healthcare, retail, multiskilling, IT&ITeS and tourism and hospitality, she informed.

Pre-vocational classes for classes 6 to 8 (10 bagless days’ activities) would be introduced from 2022 onwards in all the schools, wherein students will intern with local experts like carpenters, artists, gardeners etc., she informed.

She added that eight schools in the state have been identified for Skill Hubs Initiative (SHI) under PMKVY.

Deputy Mission Director, Samagra Shiksha, Liyalo Apon spoke on out-of-school children. He said that as per the UDISE 2020-2021, the dropout rate for elementary was 5.42 for boys and 4.09 for girls.