‘Government teachers qualified, but results tell different story’

Our Correspondent
Kohima, Feb. 11 (EMN): Teachers in government schools in Nagaland are most qualified but the performance of the students and poor results tell a different story, a government servant said during a Nishtha programme. The quality of education depends on the commitment of the teachers, they were told.

The five-day long special National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement (Nishtha) training programme for elementary teachers and head teachers got underway from Tuesday at Pungro town in Kiphire district.
The programme, under the aegis of the education programme Samagra Shiksha of Nagaland, will be conducted till February 15.

Nuhuta Tunyi, extra additional commissioner for Pungro, exhorted the teachers during the introductory session. He said quality teaching is essential for quality education.

While speaking about ‘low quality index,’ he urged the teachers to take the training programme seriously and improve the learning outcome of the schools.
According to the civil servant, the practice of keeping ‘proxy’ teachers is one of the biggest problems to education. He appealed to the teachers not to engage proxy teachers.

Tunyi stated that the government schools have the most qualified teachers but the performance of the students show poor results ‘as quality of education at schools is dependent on the commitment of teachers to their jobs.’

Kelhikha Kenye, assistant mission director of the Samagra Shiksha, who is coordinating the Nishtha training programme, gave the keynote address at the programme.

The official told the teachers that the School Education department, Samagra Shiksha, and the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) are jointly organising the programme and are ‘totally committed to ensure that not a single elementary teachers are left behind in this mega training exercise.’

Kenye said that the Nishtha training programme is the ‘biggest teachers’ training programme in the world,’ with an objective to train 42 lakh teachers throughout the country.

The government servant informed the teachers that 7250 teachers have been covered in Nagaland in the first two phases of the event. He reminded the teachers that the Nishtha training programme, which is based on integrated training modules, offers a golden opportunity to states like Nagaland to revamp the system to bring about quality education. He urged the teachers to replicate the training modules when they go back to the classrooms.

Currently, 113 teachers have registered for the Pungro phase of the programme. The resource persons were from the SCERT, District Institute for Education and Training, and the School Education department.

Mon
The department of Information and Public Relations also gave separate updates about a smiliar programme in Mon. The second phase of the five-day Nishtha programme which began on February 4 concluded on February 8 at the government higher secondary school of Mon. A total of 356 primary teachers from 26 government middle schools and 78 government primary schools attended the training, the IPR stated.

The training was conducted by ten resource persons and two state resource persons.

In the “motivational session” of the final session of the event, the principal of the Mon DIET, Sohulo Rengma, said teaching is a noble profession which should be taken up with great dedication. He encouraged the teachers to upgrade their skills with the changing times, the IPR stated.