Fabricated data makes grassroots-level planning of education system in Nagaland futile

If we do not set examples and live by them, our children will waver, resource persons on school management committee told.

Our Correspondent
Kohima, March 23 (EMN): Nagaland has been endowed with human resources, but if they are not nurtured in the right direction, ‘it would lead to chaos,’ said Kevileno Angami, Special Secretary for School Education and State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT).

She was speaking at the two-day intensive state-level training for district and block resource persons on school management committee, and school management and development committee (SMC/SMDC), which began on Tuesday at Capital Convention Centre in Kohima.

The training programme is organised by the Nagaland Education Mission Society Samagra Shiksha.

'We are all tasked with responsibility of our children- human resources. Therefore, if we do not set examples and live by them, our children will waver,’ Angami told the gathering.

‘The SMC and SMDCs are the grassroots planning of the education system. If they are able to give their reports on time, it can be taken into account. However, on many occasions, grassroots planning are not fit to be taken into account. The details furnished are not factual as there are other ulterior motives behind it,’ she said.

Besides infrastructural development, she urged them to look into planning components like how to reduce dropout rates, how to make schools inclusive and how to furnish efficient details, as they equally important.

The officer encouraged them to learn from one another and share good practices with each other to find out ways to resolve issues that come along.

Deputy Mission Director of Samagra Shiksha, Nagaland, Kelhikha Kenye, in his keynote address, said that the training programme was primarily aimed at reactivating community leaders by refreshing them on their roles and responsibilities in schools management.

The district and block resource persons (DMA officials, EBRC coordinators and ToTs) who are trained in the programme will replicate the same in the district and block level, covering all the 1990 government schools.

He informed that as per the Right to Education Act 2009, the community leaders -- school management committee members -- are supposed to play vital roles in the management of schools to achieve overall improvement in the quality of education.

Community leaders must be trained to achieve the objective of the Nagaland Communitisation of Public Institutions and Services Act of 2002, which is to empower the community to own and manage its institutions, and to provide optimum services to the user community by involving them in the planning process and management of its institutions.

Speaking on the importance of decentralisation of education, Shiksha said it was aimed at achieving substantial improvement in efficiency, transparency, accountability and responsiveness of services in education. Therefore, it is ought to be more efficient, reflect local priorities, encourage community participation and eventually improve coverage and quality of education. It also aims at involving community leaders in the management of education and draw community participation.

Resource persons will discuss on a range of topics including disability inclusion in education, school safety programme, conduct of mock drills, teachers at first responder and counsellor, child protection policy, role and responsibility of SMC/SDMC community participation, record keeping etc. during the workshop.