Delivering Quality Education: Pedagogy and Evaluation

Dr. Asangba Tzüdir

With the objective of promoting quality education, the Longleng District Planning and Development Board have come up with a noble resolution that every govt. department under Longleng district would adopt a govt. School. With such initiative of adoption and subsequent monitoring, it is hoped that schools will see desirable changes considering the issues and challenges confronting educational system today. At the school level, problems of lack of proper infrastructure associated with overall development of the student child; issues of Communitization; misuse of mid-day meal scheme; culture of keeping proxy teachers, etc. have greatly derailed the process of delivering quality education.


At the college level, there is need for infrastructural development especially library that requires up-gradation in terms of technology, books and journals. The syllabus continues to remain stagnant in the face of the never ending production of various forms of cultures of knowledge in the world of academia. Further, the absence of a foundational discipline like Philosophy under Nagaland University shows that it still has a long way to go.


Coming to issues related to quality education, it is observed that quality education is sacrificed at the altar of a ‘liberalised’ marking system which is employed to improve the poor results of High School and Higher Secondary govt. schools over the years. This is also attested by the fact that the marks that a majority of the student scores is not reflected in their knowledge content. While the focus has been to improve the poor results of Govt. Schools and colleges, pedagogy and evaluation which are integral to delivering quality education remains to be seen.


With changing times, the syllabus may get outdated, and even though a new syllabus is not framed, a lot depends on the pedagogy, the method and practice of teaching to make the content and context relevant with the times. Unless pedagogical health is taken care of, quality education cannot be delivered. This call for dedication, commitment and owning a sense of responsibility from the teachers. The nobility of the profession, so also the pay are certain instances to recommit and go beyond the normal rituals of teaching.


On the evaluation front, certain parameters need to be in place so that all the students are evaluated properly and that neither the student nor the teacher lives in ‘bad faith.’ There may be a lot of promising students who are determined enough to prove their worth as a bright student, so also excel in their endeavor. This is where proper evaluation is desirable. There may be teachers who might just blindly evaluate a student’s scripts without reading, but based on general observation and assessment of the student. This is outright injustice done to the efforts given by the student. The University can adopt certain parameters to ensure that the scripts are properly evaluated by the teachers, like having a specific number of scripts to be checked within a given time frame. This will also ensure that due amount of time is allotted for checking a script.


Coming back to the resolution to adopt schools by the various departments under Longleng District, such initiatives will no doubt act as a catalyst towards strict functioning of the schools, but due focus should be given on pedagogy in order to deliver quality education.


(Dr. Asangba Tzudir writes a weekly guest editorial for The Morung Express. Comments can be mailed to asangtz@gmail.com)