Al Ngullie
DIMAPUR, JANUARY 14
THE department of School Education has begun, what it said, “rationalizing” two strata of government teachers as part of preparations to affect relegation of “nil performing” government high schools across Nagaland in the coming month. Policy makers of the state’s school education sector are scheduled to meet toward the end of January and finalize decision to “downgrade” the state-run poorly-performing high schools. The stated preparations have been confirmed by official sources Monday.
Director of School Education K Peshao confirmed reports on Monday that the statement of Minister for School Education CM Chang to “downgrade” high schools was now being addressed with an official policy. The official neither confirmed nor denied the move, though, except that “the process is underway”.
“It (official order) has yet to be implemented and a final decision will be taken,” Phesao told this daily, referring to the reports about “downgrading”. He said the “process is underway” though, and preparations for what is suggested to be a reshuffling of teachers spread across the state statewide are underway. “We are rationalizing and streamlining the staffing pattern.” Queried what “rationalizing” the system meant, the department’s director explained it meant “how many teachers should be in government high schools, how many staff members should be in government primary schools” and so on.
‘Rationalization and streamlining is currently under process ad would be completed soon,” he said. He requested to wait for the official order.
Reliable individuals including a district education official, village council chairmen, and a number of teachers had informed the previous week that poorly-performing government high schools in Nagaland were being examined for “downgrade” (relegated).
The latest development suggests a return to retrospection by the state’s education policy makers. For a department in need of redemption from its history of alleged corruption and mismanagement, the current works are believed to be a step toward mitigating the state-of-affairs in the school education sector run by the government.
Challenges ahead
The exercise to downgrade would involve huge administrative and logistical resources for the reason that the department is one of the largest in the state. As of 2012, there were 876 government-aided schools in the state. The equation: 26 government higher secondary schools, 91 government-aided higher secondary schools, 274 government secondary schools and 485 government-aided secondary schools.
However, as reports suggested earlier, the proposed relegation would affect only the state-run high schools that have showed “nil” pass percentage for consecutive 4-5 years. For district such a Phek district, there seem to be no worries. For instance, a headmistress in a Phek government school, Chibeni Patton said she has not heard of any move to relegate schools in the district. She surmised that perhaps it is because Phek has showed remarkable improvement in the high school results over the years.
The happy story won’t necessarily apply to many high schools in Dimapur though. A respectable community leader from Dimapur disclosed days ago that he had been informed of activity by the government to downgrade at least 14 high schools in the commercial district. Chairman of Thahekhu Village Council Denis Yepthomi, said on January 10 that his village authorities have been informed and that he had talked to district education officials as well about the “order” in the making.
Govt school education on the run
The poor performance of government schools in Nagaland remains a yearly headache for the think-tank of the state. Even rural students are opting more in favor of the much-better-performing private institutions. The Annual Status of Education Report of 2013 by national education trust, Pratham, says that enrollment in private schools have been increasing in almost all states with the states of Kerala, Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya accounting for over 40% in private schools even in 2012.
Likewise, according to ASER’s ‘education outlook of Nagaland 2011’ report, 98.8% of children studying in class-II can at least recognize numbers. However the situation is dismal for higher classes: only 35.7% children in standard-V in Nagaland can actually do division.
“Since 2009, private school enrollment in rural areas has been rising at an annual rate of about 10%. If this trend continues, by 2018 India will have 50% children in rural areas enrolled in private schools,” Pratham, the largest nongovernmental organization working to provide quality education to underprivileged children in India, states in its report obtained by the reporter.
Closer home, the truth is starker: During the past five years, only 15 students of government schools reportedly passed in the first division in the High School Leaving Certificate examinations while private schools have had 2,009 students in the rank. In the Higher Secondary School Leaving Certificate examinations, government school students passing in the first division were just 923 comparing to the 4,345 students from private schools who secured a place in the first-ranking division.
In 2013, the Nagaland Board of School Education (NBSE) declared the results for the High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) examination. It showed a pass percentage of 63.51 per cent. Private schools made off with the laurels with 88.36 per cent pass percentage while government schools recorded a deplorable pass per cent of 37.25.
The blame game
The desperation for a solution to curing the malady seems ever starker among the policy makers – blame continues to be passed from political parties to the government, and government to the teachers.
In 2013, the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee blamed Democratic Alliance of Nagaland government for the poor performances for the poor performance of government schools in recent HSLC examination. The NPCC blamed the ‘declining standards and poor results’ of the government schools on what it alleged was the “random politicization of education” and corruption in the Nagaland government.
Then, in the fall of 2013, the state’s Minister for Planning & Coordination TR Zeliang in outright blamed the teachers for the poor performance of government schools. In September, Zeliang’s cabinet colleague, Minister for School education CM Chang again blamed the “insincerity” of the teachers for the poor students.
Organizations representing teachers in general in Nagaland as well as those standing for private teachers have also pitched in their resentment at the poor performance of government schools in the state over the years. The common refrain from the teachers’ community is that there is lack of monitoring, accountability, and management from the government when running the schools.
What impact the ‘downgrading’ of poorly-performing schools would have on the quality of education remains to be seen. However, the urgent need of the hour to ‘cleanse’ the system is the intervention of a policy-backed action plan that is fed by both political will and principle.
