With the incoming of approximately 3000 (three thousand) eligible heads who had cleared the test and trials conducted by the Selection Committee assigned by the Government of Nagaland, the standard of the Government Schools have risen from almost decadence status up to certain considerate level. The recently declared HSLC results clearly proves that with the feeding of the students by aggrieved teachers at Primary and Elementary/Upper Primary level, the Public Schools’ performances in Nagaland are showing up slight improvements. Indeed, the credit does not only goes to the present agitating teachers but mostly to all the not so newly recruits irrespective of RMSA/SSA who had undergone stages of open public tests before appointments were issued. The qualified teachers of 2010 and 2013 batches are not trying to take away all the acclamations for the slim resurrection of the Government Schools in Nagaland yet, I am confident and with the general public as a witness to say that there is definitely ‘the wind of change’ in the mission field of the Department of School Education (DoSE) after the arrival of the above mentioned teachers who are untimely paid and discriminated. Ironically, there are times when some teachers had to move from post to pillar in want of financial aids to sustain their monthly family needs while maintaining the tag of nation builders during the understanding period with the efficiency of the government/department . Indeed, the grass is greener on the other side of the hills; many teachers had migrated from different departments and professions and joint the so called noblest job under DoSE. But this very profession seems to be artificially creating an environment of distrust and resentments due to “birth defect” and “fault during the time of appointment”. Currently, including the ad hoc teachers, it’s almost a quarter of the government servants are on agitation! When the Government could solve the cancerous issues of bogus appointment, ghost appointment, forgery appointment, counterfeit appointment etc. but not yet done with backdoor appointments, why is the government so callous and hypocritic to accommodate the genuine teachers? It is up to the Government/Department whether to let the Public Education System doze off its own lights at the emergence of mighty and privately owned Education System in Nagaland or continue to have an aristocratic mind set while the poorest of the poor are at the receiving end of all the myths and might of the Government/Department or amicably diagnose the “birth defect” for the sake societal growth.
Just to refresh all what is known by all, ‘education is not an abstract term, it is manifested in the cultural economic, individual, philosophical, scientific, social and spiritual advancement. It is the means for developing the mind for the betterment of individual and society.’ How far are we teachers and the concern authorities committed to this very truth? What wrong had the aggrieved teachers done so far since appointment for the past ten and eight years so to nullify the error of “birth defect” by the government? Why is the government trying to suppress the democratic expression of the teachers with an iron fist? As the ancient Athenian saying says, ‘the cobbler makes the shoe, but only the wearer can tell where it pinches’. The aggrieved teachers alone knows how hard it is to maintain the balance of delivering justice to our dear and beloved students with discriminations forcing against us under the popular statement of No Work No Pay with irregular pay and an illusion of Regular State Employee with Co- Terminus status whereas according to the appointment order it is never a co-terminus consent. No matter how strong and dedicated the wheels (Teachers) are attached to the body of the cart (Education system), if the cow (executives/implementing agencies) is not willing to progress it forward, the wheel is technically immovable.
Jetilo Apon
Logwesunyu Village
