Sukhalu rues poor state of Nagaland Govt schools infra

June 23, 2022 50 Views No Comment

NLTP be lifted and revenue invested in Edu & Health’

Morung Express News
Dimapur | June 23

A cash-strapped Neiphiu Rio-led government may have shelved an ambitious plot to review the Prohibition law. But the money that can be made from liquor by the government and the potential impact the revenue would have on development spending in Nagaland is still tempting.

This is what the MLA & Advisor of School Education & SCERT, KT Sukhalu alluded to, speaking at a consultative meeting of non-teaching officials from the Department of School Education (DoSE) on June 22 in Dimapur. “It may not sound very good but I am thinking… that Prohibition should be lifted and the revenue that we get should be (invested) in education and healthcare,” remarked Sukhalu at the conclave.

Prior to the remark, he had rued how “the infrastructure of our schools is very poor” and wondered what can be done to improve. Otherwise, he said that the Samagra Shiksa is “the only intervention that we have for infrastructure or other requirements of the Department.”

“We need good infrastructures for our schools. Today, we are giving you so many equipments for smart classrooms… (But) unless you have proper infrastructure, what is the purpose of giving computers and all the digital equipments? Things will just get misplaced.”

The idea behind the conclave was to help bridge what he said was a perceived “disconnect” among the officers of the DoSE. He said, “My observation is that that there is lack of co-ordination between the District Coordinators under Samagra Shiksha and DEOs, there is lack of coordination between the EBRC Coordinators and SDEOs.”

In this connection, he raised certain concerns, among which included disparity in data recorded by the various units of the Department.

According to him, data about student enrolment and number of teachers maintained by the Educational Block Resource Centre (EBRC) and the DEOs/SDEOs do not tally. “Unless we know our ground reality, it is very difficult for us policy makers, people sitting the Secretariat or Directorate to actually give proper directions.”

He also cited “reports” about officials on their retirement taking away equipments meant for schools. A tendency to neglect work by officers nearing retirement, aspersion to transfer orders and plummeting enrolment in government schools were the other concerns he raised.

Linking “disheartening” high school results to poor foundational literacy, he asserted that primary education needs special attention. In this regard, he said that the DEOs, ADEOs and SDEOs have to straighten up.

Without taking names, he said that some schools have skewed student-teacher ratio, which need rationalising. However, he said that it is being put on hold and being studied “as things are not going on well” in this aspect.

The critical appraisal notwithstanding, he noted that the performance of government higher secondary schools, over the years, have been commendable.

Shortcut appointments

The School Education Advisor further admitted to what he termed as “shortcuts in appointing teachers directly.” This, he said, could perhaps be one of the reasons for the poor performance at the Secondary level.

On that note, he batted for excluding the recruitment of primary teachers from the purview of the Staff Selection Board. He explained it this way, “My concern is (that) primary teachers are ‘linguistic-based.’ So, I am making a proposal to the government that it should be conducted district-wise so that each district… can have the local teachers recruited.” He maintained that there will be no direct appointment and rather the applicants put through an interview process.

Many vacant posts
According to Sukhalu, there are 131 posts of headmasters and assistant headmasters lying vacant, which he attributed to “3 groups of graduate teachers” going to court. He added, “They have withdrawn their cases. Now we are scrutinizing their documents.”

Besides, there is shortage of 7 District Education Officers, which would increase, if the new districts are accounted for. Further, there are 4 posts vacant at the joint director level, 3 senior SDEOs, 6 deputy directors, 7 SDEOs and 3 ADEOs.

Source: https://morungexpress.com/sukhalu-rues-poor-state-of-nagaland-govt-schools-infra