Sakshi students serve 7-day ultimatum to Edu. department

DIMAPUR, AUGUST 8 : Nagaland’s embattled department the School Education department has been served yet another ultimatum. This time it is the Sakshi Students' Union (SSU), based in Longleng district, that has placed a representation demanding a teacher each of science and mathematics for a government high school. The union issued the ultimatum to the School Education department giving the latter seven days starting from August 9, and till the 15th, to respond. The demand is a ‘four years old demand’ specifically seeking a mathematics and science subject teacher for the government high school of Sakshi. Talking to Eastern Mirror on Monday, the president of the SSU, Y Pongshi Yangang, asserted that the government high school was 25 years old but had been running without teachers for mathematics and science. It was only in 2014 that the school’s board and students’ union had to resort to employing private teachers for the two ‘demanding subjects.’ According to Yangang, the SSU visited the School Education department’s commissioner & secretary on June 1, 2016, to seek redress for their grievance. The latter is said to have requested 15 days with a verbal assurance for a ‘solution’ that two teachers of said subjects would be either posted or ‘reshuffled.’ The assurance was to have been fulfilled on the reopening day of the school following the summer break. However, it was informed, after a lapse of 30 days with no response from the authorities, the students’ union paid another visit to the commissioner & secretary on July 25. There was reportedly ‘no positive response’ from that event. The union passed out copies of the memorandum to the media. The representation was to be submitted to the School Education department. On May 31, 2016, the students’ union had clearly mentioned in its ‘final representation to respond within 15 days.’ Failure would invite the union to take an own course of action ‘by picketing/shutting down the government high school of Sakshi as a first phase agitation.’ However even after the clear demand, the department ‘extended a cold shoulder to the genuine demand for the school.’ The organization’s president said that the school had been producing ‘nil results’ in High School Leaving Certificate examinations ‘with questions thrown on the management of the school for poor results.’ While highlighting the stagnation of Sakshi’s government school, which is said to be the third-oldest high school in Longleng district, Yangang wondered how its students would even perform when there was no teachers to tutor them especially on said two important subjects. The president commented that the union had been 'too lenient' on the Education department. With the seven-day ultimatum served to the School Education department now, the union has made clear that the department must take this communication seriously. The students' union will not be held accountable for any untoward incident, they added.