Nagaland School Edu Advisor calls for recruitment to address teacher shortage

September 5, 2023 91 Views No Comment

Our Correspondent
Kohima | September 5

Nagaland Advisor for School Education & SCERT, Dr Kekhrie Yhome today called for a recruitment drive to address the shortage of teachers in Nagaland.

Addressing a press conference at Hotel Japfu, Kohima, the Advisor informed that the State does not have even 1,000 science or math teachers. “How can we provide science and math teachers to all the schools?” he mulled. On this, the Advisor said that the department will be submitting documentation to the State Government to address this shortage. He proposed recruitment drive for such teachers, something which has not taken place for a very long time.

He said this while releasing data on teachers, the number of schools, and employee strength within the department. This was done in the presence of School Education Principal Director, Thavaseelan K and other department officials.

Dr Yhome further said that the NPSC is not in a position to satisfy the needs of the department and the NSSB is not in position to conduct exams for the department.

Meanwhile, he informed that based on the overall retiree list from today (September 4) till December 31, 2024, a lot of officers, teachers and staff will be retiring. 71 officers, including 323 teachers will be retiring during the period. In another 15 months, we will have acute shortage of teachers, he said.

178 legal cases against School Edu Dept
He also informed that currently there are 178 legal cases against the School Education Department. He added that if the department conducts a cadre review, “more than 500 to 600 court cases will immediately come to us.”

Dr Yhome observed that a lot of piece meal solutions have taken place in the department. To the seniors, he said “We are not talking against your seniority but we all must work together.” “Today, you must sacrifice. We will listen to you. We will listen to your grievances. We need to work ahead,” he added.

Meanwhile, he observed that some village councils are hand in glove with proxy teachers. Talking about the absence of space for professional growth within teachers, he said that only this year, the government announced promotion of Graduate Teachers to Assistant Head Masters.

“Professionally, we have not taken care of our teachers. So today, I must confess that we are very sorry for our teachers,” he said.

Dept releases data of employees
The data released by the department today showed that there are 595 Post Graduate Teachers in Nagaland, of which 447 are regular, 2 adhoc, 135 contractual and 11 on fixed pay basis.

There are 4,973 graduate teachers, of which 3,807 are regular, 513 adhoc, 503 are contractual, and 150 on fixed pay. 182 graduate teachers have been found to be attached to non-teaching lines.

Primary teachers form the highest number with 9,520, of which 7,694 are regular, 1672 are adhoc, 24 contractual and 130 on fixed pay.

Further, there are 131 language teachers, of which 61 are regular, 23 adhoc, 33 contractual, and 14 on fixed pay. Out of this, 3 are attached to Samagra Shiksha.

There are also 158 Graduate Teachers (Hindi), comprising of 149 regular and 9 under Centrally Sponsored Scheme.

The data also informed that there are 1,801 Under Graduate Hindi teachers, of which 1,315 are regular, 470 are under Centrally Sponsored Scheme, 15 are adhoc, and 1 on fixed pay. 4 Under Graduate Hindi teachers are attached to non teaching line.

There are also 184 Physical Education Teachers, of which 127 are regular, 55 are adhoc and 1 each on contractual and fixed pay basis.

Lastly, there are 114 Vocational teachers/trainers, of which, 3 are adhoc, 102 are on contractual basis and 9 on fixed pay.

1,939 Government schools in Nagaland
The data also informed that there are 1,939 government schools in Nagaland, comprising of 1,050 Government Primary Schools, 595 Government Middle Schools, 242 Government High Schools and 562 Government Higher Secondary Schools. There are also 111 RMSA upgraded schools across the 16 districts of Nagaland.

The Directorate of School Education, Kohima has a total employee count of 341 with 68 designations. There are 67 officers under Grade 1 and II. Grade III consists of 157 employees and Grade IV has 72 employees.

The data also said that the Department of School Education has a total of 3,780 Grade III and Grade IV staff.

The overall retiree list (from September 4 till December 31, 2024), Secretariat deployment, and Nagaland Secretariat Service deployment as of July 2023 was also made available during the press conference.