Nagaland government to decide on reopening of schools and colleges soon

• Per capita expenditure per student in government schools is INR 1.09 lakh per year
• Schools with continuous NIL results since 2017 will be downgraded to GMS

Our Correspondent
Kohima, June 23 (EMN): Nagaland government will soon take a decision on reopening of educational institutions in the state, according to Advisor for School Education KT Sukhalu.

Speaking at an event in Kohima on Tuesday, Sukhalu asserted that educational institutions cannot remain closed indefinitely.

“We cannot halt education forever. Everything that was true about the competition in the wider world still applies; we cannot put all our children at a disadvantage by stalling education,” he added.

Sukhalu advised schoolchildren to remember the safety instructions; and the parents to ensure that their children follow the precautionary measures. “One child from one family that does not observe the safety norms will endanger all the students in the school and the community,” he reminded.

‘Sanctity of School Education’

The advisor, who has been quite unreserved when talking about prevalence of corrupt influences in the department, reminded once again that “the sanctity of School Education department as a Human Resource department must be upheld, and not treated as an employment-generating department”.

He said that, “as per reports”, village education committees/school management committees/ school management and development committees have started acting as brokers in engaging proxy teachers; and in most of the cases, under qualified ad uneducated candidates are engaged as proxy.

Sukhalu reminded that the concept of communitisation was introduced to enable community participation in the education of children, but this has led to unethical practices in many parts of the state.

He was highlighting the many challenges faced by the department in imparting quality education, citing that though government schools have performed well, this year’s HSLC results were far from satisfactory despite slight improvement in terms of pass percentage.

‘Untrained and untrainable’

According to him, a sizeable number of teachers are untrained, and most of them are “untrainable”. “Teachers who cannot adapt to modern educational system need to be given VRS (voluntary retirement scheme). What we require is qualified youths with commitment and passion for teaching,” he asserted.

Sukhalu further maintained that 70% of government schools do not have the minimum infrastructure required for imparting ‘quality education in a congenial way’. He stated that major part of the funds allocated for education is spent on salary of teachers and staff, and therefore immediate measures needs to be taken to trim the excess staff so that funds can be utilised for infrastructure development.

“There is excess of teachers in few areas and shortage of teachers in many other areas,” he informed, adding that a clear policy has to be made for transfer of teachers (except for linguistic teachers) throughout the state, where staffing pattern based on enrolment of students needs to be formulated and strictly enforced.

Informing that there is shortage of math and science teachers, he said there are many local students who have BSc/MSc degrees in math and science but do not posses B.Ed qualifications to be eligible for appointment as teachers.

“To resolve the crisis of shortage of mathematics and science subject teachers, we may need to recruit teachers from the mainland to be appointed on contract or ad hoc basis. Even retired teachers who are in sound health and with good record of teaching may be re-employed,” he informed.

INR 1 lakh spent per student

There are 1,987 government schools with 1,33,262 student enrolled and 19,626 teachers, he updated, adding that the per capita expenditure per student in government schools is INR 1.09 lakh per year. He shared that schools with minimum number of enrolment need to be either merged with nearby schools or closed down.

“Political and public leaders need to understand the importance of rationalisation of schools for imparting quality education to the children who are the future,” he reasoned.

Sukhalu further informed that 25 out of the 32 schools “having NIL results” in this year’s HSLC were provided with all the subject teachers including math and science. “Necessary explanations will be sought from the HM/AHM and all the teachers on their performance,” he informed. ‘It is also observed that seven schools have continuous NIL results since 2017 with no candidate in some of the schools. No explanation is required and these schools will be downgraded to GMS,’ he added.