Nagaland: School education dept to go for extensive recruitment of teachers

February 7, 2024 62 Views No Comment

Our Correspondent
Kohima | February 7

In a bid to address the shortage of teachers in the government schools in the state, Nagaland’s School Education & SCERT Advisor, Dr Kekhrielhoulie Yhome today said that the department will go for an extensive recruitment on a need basis.

“We will do the recruitment through NPSC and NSSB. We are in the process of discussing with them,” Yhome revealed while addressing the consultative meeting of the department with Naga Students’ Federation and Eastern Naga Students Federation with their federating units at Capital Convention Centre, Kohima.

From the government side, he said it is the job of the department to provide teachers, to identify need basis and improve infrastructure and school management.

He informed that the process for rationalization of teachers should have taken place in November, but was taking more time as “we are cleaning data every day.”

He said that the department wants to do a massive exercise in the form of census of the government schools. We need to go back to primary level to improve the education system and for children to get proper education, Dr Yhome underscored.

We need serious, rigorous data at the village level, he said, maintaining that it will help formulate a clearer policy. In this, he sought the cooperation of the student bodies.

We have captured all the necessary data and we are ready to formulate policy, he stated.

Once we start making policy, it will be drastic, sharp and will be for the benefit and equity of our people, he emphasized.

Yhome said that for a long time, the public thought that school education is backbone of getting employment. He called upon the public to change this attitude.

The Advisor said that school education is a place where we build our society. This is a place where we are handling with human resources, he added. Touching on language development, Yhome said the department was also developing a textbook and also meeting with tribal literature boards.

31, 063 teachers in Nagaland
Dr Yhome said that there are 31,063 teachers in Nagaland at present.

Out of this, government school teachers constitutes 18, 725 and private school teachers at 12, 338.

Based on December 2023 data, there are 1, 50, 483 students in government schools and 2, 59, 480 students in private schools.
He said that Nagaland is spending about Rs 800 to Rs 900 crores every year on school education in the private sector.

School education is the 2nd largest department in the state and in terms of salary component alone; budget for the last year of the department stood at Rs 1713 crores. We don’t want our department to be a debt incurring department anymore. We are trying to smartly, wisely look at our expenditure, he added.

On YAA ultimatum
The School Education Advisor said he met the Yimkhiung Akheru Arihako (YAA) on February 5 to discuss on the ultimatum served to the department. “While we can immediately solve some of their requirements, it will take time to address some of their demands. What we can do we are trying to do,” he stated.

“I told them that it is not possible for us to sign document because it is a breach of trust,” Dr Yhome also revealed. We will continue with the discussion. We are going to review everything but it will eventually come step by step, he added.

During the interactive session, the NSF, ENSF and federating units highlighted various grievances, problems and challenges confronting the government schools in the state.

Kevileno Angami, Commissioner And Secretary for School Education & SCERT and Principal Director Thavaselean K highlighted the series of initiatives undertaken to address the shortcomings and sought the support of the student bodies and community participation and to collectively work together to take the education forward.