[dropcap]A[/dropcap] debate has been initiated in the media about the proposed implementation of the new staffing pattern in the Govt. Higher Secondary Schools of Nagaland. A section of the employees of the education department opposes the new pattern and threaten with agitations while another section appreciates the department for the initiation. I would like to share my views about the new staffing pattern here in the interest of thousands of rural Govt. school students who suffer due to acute shortage of teachers. I would confidently say that the proposed new staffing pattern of education department would stand as a milestone in the history of the department and is really a bold step taken by the policy makers towards correcting the mistakes committed for more than few decades.
Of course the new staffing pattern is not free from lapses; but one should understand that occurrence of few lapses is quite common with implementation of any innovative idea. The drawbacks of the system could be brought to the notice of the Government and I am sure that the concerned authorities would definitely look in to the genuine concerns of the employees. But opposing a novel initiation of the Govt. with utter selfishness is nothing but committing a sin against the poor people of Nagaland.
People may cite many reasons for opposing the new staffing pattern. But the real fact hidden behind the opposition is very simple. A section of the influential officers who ‘managed’ to get posted in the district headquarters doesn’t like to move away from their comfortable posting places. We all know that most of the Govt. Higher Secondary Schools are situated in district and subdivision headquarters. If the HMs, AHMs and few Graduate Teachers from the GHSSs are redeployed to other High schools, they will have to give away few comforts and this is the major reason for their opposition. Here an important fact has been conveniently hidden by the associations which oppose the new pattern. They propagate that the Govt. has ordered redeployment of all the Graduate Teachers from the GHSSs. But this is not true. Few Graduate and Under Graduate teachers would be retained in the GHSSs and we could always demand more teachers depending on the strength of students.
Let me present a factual figure about a particular GHSS in Nagaland as a sample for your understanding of the financial implications of the new pattern. A GHSS having 35 teaching staff now would have 24 teaching staff under the new staffing pattern and the affairs of the school could still be managed comfortably within the prescribed workload of the teachers. With the implementation of the new pattern, approximately Rs.5,20,000/-(Rupees five lakh twenty thousand) per month would be saved from this single school. Please take the trouble of calculating the amount spent unnecessarily for a period of 10 years in one school itself where as hundreds of schools are suffering without teachers in the rural areas.
The opposing associations has stated that the ‘Junior Post Graduate Teachers’ will not be able to manage the disciplinary issues arising in the secondary section of the schools without the Senior Graduate Teachers. Dear friends, where you all got posted initially as Senior Graduate Teachers? Let us not forget that most of the Post Graduate Teachers are trained (Possesses B.Ed degree) and been selected through tough competitive exams conducted by NPSC. Instead of opposing the novel initiative of the department for the convenient of few individuals, why don’t we have a healthy competition in improving the quality of education in the Govt. High Schools managed by the Headmasters and the Govt. Higher Secondary Schools managed by the Principals?
B Nellayappan
Principal’s Quarter
GHSS Colony, Bhandari.
