School Education Dept responds to RPP

June 4, 2022 40 Views No Comment

KOJIMA, JUNE 4 (MExN): The Nagaland Department of School Education (DoSE) has issued a clarification to the recent statement by the Rising People’s Party (RPP). The latter had called for abolishment of the post of Principal Director, School Education, and criticized the department for the poor performance of government schools in the recent HSLC & HSSLC examinations.

In a press release issued through the DIPR, the department said that the issue of keeping IAS officers as Principal Director, School Education comes under the purview of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions (Department of Personnel and Training).

It informed that the cadre allotment was done vide the Indian Administrative Service (Fixation of Cadre Strength) Fourth Amendment Regulations, 2015 (Notification No GSR 1021 (E), Dated, 30thDecember 2015). The department, it said, is obliged to follow the regulations.

Regarding the decrease in pass percentage of government school students, the department accepted the poor performance, while also pointing out that “there is overall decrease in pass percentage in the state level as well as in private schools due to the pandemic related issues.”

It reminded that candidates of the HSLC 2022 batch suffered “considerable amount of learning loss” when they were in class 9 in the year 2020 as well as in class 10 during the year 2021.

Further, it said that despite the best efforts of the department to rationalize teachers, the state faces acute shortage of Mathematics and Science teachers. It pointed to this as one reason behind the decline in the examination results.

Meanwhile, as approved by the Cabinet, the department informed that it has already issued notification for recruitment of 63 numbers of Graduate Teachers (Math) and 92 numbers of Graduate Teachers (Science). The recruitment process will be completed soon and this will help the department to address the issue of shortage of Math and Science teachers in the State, it assured.

The department said that the issue of poor performance of students from government schools is a “complex issue.” Out of 251 Government High Schools, nearly 135 schools were not having headmasters due to court cases between different groups of teachers, it informed.

The department is now reportedly finalising the seniority of Graduate Teachers and promotions to the post of Assistant Headmasters will be carried out shortly. Another issue faced, the department said is the instability in managing the posts of District Education Offices and Sub Divisional Education Offices.

“In Educational Administration, the District Education Officers and Sub Divisional Education Officers play important roles in regards to Inspection and Supervision for the improvement of School Administration. Unfortunately officers at the verge of retirement are posted to these crucial posts due to unavailability of sufficient number of eligible officers with reasonable service period remaining and this short coming of instability in the District and Sub Divisional Educational administration remains unresolved,” the department said.

With regard to the Light House (Nagaland Enhancing Classroom Teaching and Resources) project, the department informed that it is a 5 year mega project which aims to bring systematic changes from the grass root level of the education system. The project was introduced in 2021 and the planning and analysing the present status of the system is essential for taking forward the project to the implementation stage, it said.

The department informed that it has completed preparation of the position papers and changes can be brought gradually once the project is implemented starting from the grass root level. “Teacher Attendance Monitoring System(TAMS), Education Management Information System (EMIS), Performance Incentive Grant(PIG) for SMC/SMDC and Creation of Light House School Complexes are some of the activities in the pipeline,” it said.

It added that details of the NECTAR project can be accessed at the website www.nagalandeduproject.com, while stating that the public are welcome at the NECTAR office at the Directorate of School Education to know the details of the project.

Source: https://morungexpress.com/school-education-dept-responds-to-rpp