Nagaland: Proxy teachers produce bad results

Our Reporter
Dimapur, April 23 (EMN): There are proxy teachers in “all” the villages in Nagaland and it’s an open secret; this practice allows unqualified persons to teach in the primary section, which is the foundation of a child, when highly trained teachers should be doing the job, which is why students from government schools in villages don’t perform well in examinations.

This was stated by Sub-Divisional Education Officer (SDEO) of Medziphema, S Repainla Jamir at the inaugural session of district-level training for School Management Committee (SMC) and School Management and Development Committee (SMDC) at CTC hall, Chümoukedima, on Friday.

Stressing on the practice of proxy teachers in the state, she stated that the government is trying it best to eliminate the menace but ‘it is not possible’. She said that’ teachers will come and go but the school belongs to the community’.

‘The government appoints qualified teachers but the qualified ones will stay at home and the unqualified teachers will teach in schools. The teachers and governments do not lose anything but the community does,’ she told the gathering.

Lamenting that unqualified persons were allowed to teach in place of qualified teachers, especially in the lower section, primary and middle schools, Jamir urged the committee to take a firm stand and not allow proxy teachers in the villages.

‘The SMC and SMDC should be aware that primary school is the most important phase of education as it is the foundation of a child; and highly qualified trained teachers should be teaching students in the primary level, but in our state, even mere graduates who haven’t undergone any training are appointed as teachers. Besides that, those teachers does not come to schools, but allow an unqualified person to teach in schools,’ she said.

Jamir stated that basic lessons like mathematics, alphabets and phonetics are not taught properly to even students of class 4 or 5 in the villages. When they (government teachers) do not teach children, how can schools produce good results? she asked.

Comparing with private schools, she said students from such institutes perform better in academics not because they have better teachers but because of competition; ‘even in their homes, the parents are competitive and educated’.

“Parents in villages are mostly illiterate and send their children to the nearest government school available, and on top of that, instead of qualified teachers, proxy teachers are kept, resulting in bad results,” she said.

‘For the betterment of the community, please try to abolish the proxy system completely and when the real and qualified teachers come and teach your children, you will get better results,’ she appealed to the members of SMC and SMDC taking part in the training programme.

She reminded them to know their roles and the purpose for which they have been appointed. The formation of the committee in every government school was to encourage the community and parental involvement in planning, mandating and monitoring of developmental programmes for schools, because they will have sense of belongingness if they involve in management, she added.

She went on to say that the SMC and SMDC have an important role to play in improving the functioning of schools, reduce dropout rates and creating positive attitude towards schools among the parents.

‘Also, give full support to the teachers, and in that way the school in your village will become the best,’ she concluded.

Best performing SMDC and SMC certificates were also given to six schools from Niuland and Medziphema: GHSS Niuland, GMS Zutoi and GMZ Nikhekhu from Niuland EBRC; and GHSS Chümoukedima, GMS Tenyiphe-I and GMS Seithekie-C from Medziphema EBRC at the event, which was organised by the District Mission Authority- Samagra Shuksha Dimapur.

It was also informed that a mock drill on emergency method of rescue (EMR), bandaging and uses of fire extinguishers would be conducted during the training session.