‘Nagaland has academicians, but needs more humane leaders’

KOHIMA, SEPT 8 : Nagaland has many good academicians but a lack for humane capabilities that can produce good citizens, challenges the academic institutions, a speaker at a church-sponsored event in Kohima observed on Thursday.

‘Nagaland has a good number of academicians, but we need to make good human beings for our society,’ said Sashikala Ozukum, administrator of Dimapur-based Hope Academy. She was speaking at a two-day conference of school administrators that was organised by the Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC).

The event was conducted based on the theme ‘challenges and prospects of school administrators.’ The event is scheduled for September 8 and the 9th at the NBCC Platinum Hall in Bayavü.
The conference was organised with the stated purpose of bringing administrators of church-run schools under the NBCC to ‘enable them to embrace the prospect of their profession as a calling, and to interact intelligently with the challenges and to commit themselves to (building) the generations (that have been) placed in their hands.’

Speaking as a resource person, Sashikala Ozukum said that there were ‘lots of challenges’ for administrators who were seeking the best for their schools and the direction they should be taking.

‘For any administrator, who is serious about envisioning a better school,’ she said, ‘it is important to make the visions his personal practice and to really begin to understand the potential for himself and herself first.’

The visions, Ozukum said, should be tried first to model them around teachers, students, and the community ‘because it is not just a process for teachers and students, but a process for the community too’.

‘As leaders, our roots should not be so deep-rooted that we remain seated in our high chairs. Our roots must spread into the classrooms,’ she said. ‘Though there are many challenges, if we are passionate about what we do, then our challenges will become our prospects.’

Also, stating that the world continues to change fast, Ozukum spoke about the need to keep up with the changes ‘which is not comparing with other schools, but being aware of what others are doing and keeping focus in one’s visions and doing the best that one can to propel all to succeed.’

Sashikala Ozukum highlighted some of the challenges that an administrator faces: creating capable leaders out of others, shaping visions of academic success for students, creating environments for learning, engaging parents and the community; embracing technology; ‘knowing’ students, and ‘knowing’ the curriculum; accountability.

Explaining how to deal with said challenges, Ozukum asserted that it was important for administrators and teachers to realize that they are dealing with a generation of leaders and managing the future of the state. Hence, she said, they must keep reminded at working with passion.