NECTAR project: Better days ahead for government schools

DIMAPUR — While education remains the most important weapon for tomorrow’s generation, government schools in Nagaland are witnessing better days with additional support coming from Nagaland Education Project – The Lighthouse (NECTAR) over the past three years.

With assistance from the World Bank, the department of School Education launched the ambitious ‘Nagaland Education Project – The Lighthouse – Nagaland Enhancing Classroom Teaching and Resources (NECTAR)’

NECTAR is the first-ever World Bank (WB) financed education project in the north-east to be directly implemented by a state government through the Department of School Education (DoSE).

“Nagaland is the first State in the NE region to directly implement World Bank financed education project: Nagaland Education Project – The Lighthouse (NECTAR), covering 1,939 government schools,” Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio wrote on X in September 2023.

“The education system in Nagaland faces several challenges, as ultimately reflected in the decline of its student learning outcomes measured by the National Achievement Survey (NAS),” the Nagaland Education Project stated in its official website.

As part of the NECTAR project, Government Middle School at Metha Colony under DMC Ward 23 on Tuesday dedicated a much-needed classroom with community participation.

The school, which started functioning in 2010 with a just over a dozen students, has more than 100 students at present.

Peter Patton, the teacher in-charge of the school’s classroom construction, informed that with support from NECTAR and the School Management Committee (SMC), the school initiated a crowd funding and collected INR 76,700 from the colony council, teachers and parents.

An amount of INR 45,000 was donated by the SMC and colony council, INR 21,000 by teachers and INR 10,700 by parents, while some parents also donated in kind. 

Expressing gratitude to donors and well wishes, he disclosed that the classroom was constructed at a cost of around INR 2 lakh.

The new classroom comes as a boon as due to the growing number of students, the school had to shift one class to a nearby Anganwadi centre since classes with partitions were not helping.

During a short dedication programme with the teachers and parents at the school premises, Patton informed that the remaining amount will be utilised for school developmental works.

Dimapur District Project Assistant NECTAR, Kruvino, informed Eastern Mirror that Metha GMS’s first installment performance was good, while the second installment was yet to be evaluated.

As per Educational Block Resource Centre (EBRC), she informed that a total of 112 schools are benefiting from the NECTAR’s Performance Incentive Grants (PIG).

Imsenyanger Ponger, a teacher of the school, who highlighted about the NECTAR PIG, said that the school has so far received two installments, which were utilised as per the instructions.

He said that funds received from various activities and programmes were mostly diverted towards the construction of the much-needed new classroom.

Expressing satisfaction with the contribution and support received from parents, he opined that schools are not teachers’ property and that community participation is equally important towards bringing good name to the institute.

The school was awarded the ‘Happy School Award’ by the Inner Wheel India Literacy Mission in the year 2018.  Through the club’s funding, the school is said to have undertaken developmental activities for three years including fencing, renovation and others.

Peter Patton is a recipient of Inner Wheel India’s Nation Builders Award for 2018 and 2024) and Imsenyanger Ponger is also a recipient of this year’s Nation Builders Award.

At present, the school has 13 teachers including a lower section teacher whose salary is paid from the class teacher’s pocket. The private teacher for the lower class was appointed to assist the teacher as like most of schools, lower section classes require at least two teachers to control the students.

The school, since its establishment, is said to be receiving major support from the SMC and the colony council including payment of salaries to private subject teachers recruited to fill the shortage of teachers.

The school, at present, is short of a Hindi teacher and a Mathematics graduate teacher.

Through the NECTAR’s initiative, the state government is committed to prioritise addressing three precisely targeted problems within a fixed project duration— enhance the governance of schools across the state, improve teaching practices and enhance overall learning environment.