Keduoneinuo Solo
Introduction
During the recent NPSC CESE 2024 interview, a scholar friend shared her interview experience. The subject expert asked her, “Who used the term ‘banking’ in Education?” She joked that she almost replied, “My husband.” We all laughed, but it reminded me that we did study the ‘banking’ concept in Education, though we might not have fully grasped its implications, or how it relates to the current movement happening just a few blocks away from the NPSC Office. The controversy over the backdoor appointment of 147 Assistant Professors and Librarians in Nagaland has sparked widespread debate, highlighting deeper issues of corruption, nepotism, and systemic injustice within the state’s public service sector. Paulo Freire’s seminal work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, offers a powerful lens to analyse this controversy, providing critical concepts such as conscientização (critical consciousness), the fear of freedom, false generosity, sectarianism, and liberation through dialogue and praxis. These Freirean ideas can help us understand the deeper societal structures and psychological barriers that maintain oppressive systems in education and governance.
Conscientização: Awakening Critical Consciousness
Freire’s concept of conscientização refers to the process of developing a deep awareness of social, political, and economic contradictions and acting against oppressive elements.
The series of protests led by the CTAN and NNQF, along with the public backlash against the illegal appointments of the infamous 147 Assistant Professors and Librarians, including condemnation from civil societies and student bodies, as well as active coverage by local media, signals a growing “critical consciousness” among the people of Nagaland. Citizens, especially the young, conscious, and well-educated, are no longer willing to passively accept corruption disguised as a necessity. Instead, they are demanding transparency, accountability, and justice.
This awakening aligns with Freire’s vision of education and political engagement as tools for liberation. When individuals recognize systemic injustice and mobilize against it, they reclaim their agency and begin to dismantle the structures that oppress them.
Fear of Freedom: The Comfort of Compliance
Freire contends that the oppressed often fear true freedom because it demands responsibility, critical reflection, and courageous action. It is easier to conform to the familiar patterns of subjugation than to confront the discomfort of transformation.
Generally, Nagas exhibits a fear of challenging unjust practices like backdoor appointments because anyone in your neighbourhood, church, community, friends circle and even ‘teachers’ could be on the other side of the fence. There is a collective silence or hesitant compliance, rooted in fear of retribution or loss of favour. The beneficiaries of the illegal appointments, as well as their sympathizers, may subconsciously resist calls for accountability because genuine reform threatens their sense of security, entitlement, and elitist clique they hold so dear. The broader public, too, may hesitate to demand change because they have grown accustomed to a system that normalizes favouritism and irregularities.
Freire explains, “The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor, adopt his guidelines and are fearful of freedom” (Freire, 1970). This reluctance to confront oppression reflects the very fear Freire describes- a fear that, if not addressed, prevents genuine liberation and growth in democratic institutions. It underscores how individuals in Nagaland may resist confronting the systemic corruption that sustains the status quo, given the culture and ‘banking’ system of education.
False Generosity: Humanitarian Arguments That Perpetuate Injustice
Freire describes false generosity as a superficial kindness that serves to maintain the status quo rather than dismantle injustice. Real generosity, he argues, involves confronting and correcting the structural roots of oppression.
Some supporters of the 147 backdoor appointees argue that these individuals deserved to be absorbed and should be allowed to continue in their posts because they have served for years, built families, and have no other means of livelihood. While these arguments appear compassionate, they obscure the fundamental injustice done to qualified candidates who were denied a fair recruitment process.
Freire warns, “… the dispensers of false generosity become desperate at the slightest threat to its source. True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes, which nourish false charity… True generosity lies in striving so that these hands - whether of individuals or entire peoples - need be extended less and less in supplication, so that more and more they become human hands which work and, working, transform the world.” False generosity is not generosity; it is a concession. And it is the responsibility of the oppressed to overcome the false generosity of the oppressors. This narrative of false generosity attempts to mask systemic failure with emotional appeals. It sustains a corrupt system under the guise of compassion and overlooks the broader harm done to meritocracy, institutional integrity, and public trust. True justice would involve rectifying the flawed process, not validating it through moral relativism.
Sectarianism: Groupism and Political Allegiance Over Justice
Freire warns against sectarianism- both right-wing conservatism and left-wing dogmatism- as barriers to authentic dialogue and societal progress. Sectarianism promotes blind allegiance to group identity over rational, inclusive discourse.
The controversy has exposed deep-seated sectarian tendencies. Support for the illegal appointees, lack of protest, silence, delayed action, etc., falls along tribal, familial, and political lines, creating a polarized atmosphere where truth and fairness are subordinated to group or even personal loyalty. This bias obstructs efforts at systemic reform by reducing the issue to a battle of “us versus them.”
Freire argues, “The divide-and-conquer strategy, imposed by the oppressor, is internalized by the oppressed and becomes a source of division among them” (Freire, 1970). Such sectarianism undermines the possibility of a just resolution and reflects a society that prioritizes group identity or personal ego over collective justice. Freire would argue that this dynamic must be overcome through radical openness, honest reflection, and inclusive dialogue.
Liberation through dialogue and praxis
One of Freire’s most profound insights is that the oppressed must not only liberate themselves but also their oppressors. He writes “In order for this struggle to have meaning, the oppressed must not, in seeking to regain their humanity (which is a way to create it), become in turn oppressors of the oppressors, but rather restorers of the humanity of both. This, then, is the great humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves and their oppressors as well” (Freire, 1970). He argues that the humanity of both the oppressed and the oppressor is distorted in an unjust system. Only the oppressed, through their struggle for justice, can restore the full humanity of all involved.
Contextually, this idea calls for a transformative and reconciliatory approach to resolving this issue. In the present context, the oppressed- qualified candidates who were unfairly denied their opportunity must continue to raise their voices to restore integrity and fairness. Their struggle, which is grounded in truth and justice, and not arrogance, can help awaken even those who have benefited from or perpetuated the unjust system through dialogue. Dialogue is more than conversation- it is a means for action and reflection, rooted in love, humility, and faith in others.
Praxis is the combination of reflection and action for change. Without reflection, action is activism; without action, reflection is verbalism. Freire notes, “The oppressors, who dehumanize others, must also be liberated” (Freire, 1970). At the same time, those who were illegally appointed or supported the flawed process must be encouraged to reflect critically on their complicity. Their eventual acknowledgment of wrongdoing and willingness to reform can become part of a broader movement for systemic healing. They can together reform, for example, the criteria and mark weightage in the NPSC CESE recruitment process (where there is no weightage for research, publications, teaching experience, etc). This mutual transformation and joint action echo Freire’s vision of liberation: a dialectical process where oppressor and oppressed work together toward a more humanized society.
Conclusion: Toward a Freirean Transformation
The illegal absorption of the 147 Assistant Professors and Librarians is not an isolated administrative failure; it is a symptom of deeper issues within Nagaland’s educational and governance systems. Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed helps illuminate how fear, false morality, group loyalties, and apathy can entrench systems of injustice. To move forward, Nagaland can embrace Freire’s vision of liberation through dialogue, critical reflection, and collective action by re-modelling the education system that stifles creativity, curiosity, and critical thinking. Freire proposes problem-posing education, where students and teachers engage in a dialogue to reflect and act upon the world critically.
Freire emphasizes, “Liberation is a praxis: the action and reflection of men upon their world in order to transform it” (Freire, 1970). As idealistic as it sounds, true reform will require courage from citizens - educated or not, school and college students, Teachers, Research Scholars, aspirants, and even from public servants- to break free from the cycle of silence, complicity, and deceit. Only then can Nagaland’s institutions begin to reflect the democratic ideals they claim to uphold. Ultimately, the path to justice lies not only in correcting wrongs but in transforming relationships, institutions, and minds toward a shared humanity.
