Recently, the Directorate of School Education launched an investigation into the alleged absence of teachers at Government Middle School Yanpha in Bhandari after a video purportedly taken on August 16 showed students stranded outside the school during school hours as the classrooms were closed with no teachers reportedly turning up for duty. The viral video clip prompted the Directorate of School Education to seek a detailed report from the Sub Divisional Education Officer (SDEO) of Bhandari by August 20 to initiate disciplinary action against the teachers involved. Barely two months after the incident, the Chessore Town Students’ Union claimed earlier last week that three teachers, whose transfer orders to Government High School (GHS) Chessore in Shamator district were issued on Sep. 6, 2024, were yet to report for duty. There are more questions in connection with such cases of blatant irregularities but answers are hard to come by as the concerned authorities hardly take action. Are the officials of the concerned department unaware of teachers’ absenteeism? Does the Education department have a system in place to check the functioning of schools in the state? Would the authorities take up the matter related to GMS Yanpha had the video not gone viral? Is it just another kneejerk reaction or are the authorities serious about addressing the issue? If past experience is anything to go by, these complaints too shall pass—people will forget, students will continue to be deprived of quality education, and erring teachers will remain unaffected. Complaints about school infrastructure, shortage of teachers, proxy teaching, etc., have failed to yield positive outcome as things go back to square one after a brief commotion, thanks to the failure of the Education department in setting a precedent by penalising the errant teachers.
For instance, the Directorate of School Education had declared imposition of ‘No Work, No Pay’ policy more than three years ago in what was supposed to be an attempt to address the poor attendance of its employees, but there are no reports of action being taken against absentees. It is shameful that the government has failed to straighten even the habitual offenders to this day. In an attempt to ensure punctuality and accountability, besides solving the proxy teaching practice in the state, the Education department has rolled out the Teachers Attendance Monitoring System (TAMS) through its SMILE App in all government educational institutions across three districts on a pilot basis. If successful, this real-time monitoring system should be extended to the rest of the state to address attendance-related issues. It’s about time the government of Nagaland bell the cat and take concrete measures to enhance classroom teaching and provide quality education. Overconcentration of teachers in some schools, especially in urban areas, and shortages in others, mostly in rural areas, should be addressed once and for all. We can’t afford to play with the future of students.
