Morung Express News
Dimapur | December 30
Nagaland has no dearth of educational establishments with statistics indicating that the state has more schools than it has villages. As per data dating to 2021, the state has a combined total of 2706 schools out of which, 1961 were government-run, spread across the 1355 known villages and in urban localities.
The data source for the school-count dates to November 2021 and the data for the villages dates to December 2021.
Assuming all the villages have a government school at least, the state can boast of having a robust entrenchment of educational establishments, irrespective of remoteness or location. That, however, is only hypothetical, in the backdrop of proxy teaching and absenteeism, punctuated by teacher protests, becoming a staple of the government school ‘complaint box’ and the policy-makers apparently at a loss over this.
The buzzword, in 2022, however, has been ‘rationalisation’ with regard to redeploying/reshuffling of teachers based on the requirements of schools, irrespective of location. It has resulted in the Department of School Education (DoSE) coming out with orders affecting the transfer and redeployment of teachers.
How effective this measure has been in remedying the teacher-student mismatch though remains contested, with student bodies alleging flaws in the rationalisation exercise. The year saw at least three or four such instances.
The first such contestation appeared in January with the United Sangtam Students’ Conference issuing an ultimatum to the DoSE, alleging the latter of “violating its own notification on transfer and posting of teachers.” It held that despite a standing 2009 DoSE Notification assuring “no post shall be transferred out of the district along with the incumbent,” it held that 20 teachers were transferred alongwith post out of its jurisdiction within a year under “rationalisation/redeployment exercise.”
In April, two other student bodies— the Zeliangrong Students’ Union Nagaland (ZSUN) and Chakhesang Students’ Union (CSU) expressed a similar sentiment in separate press statements. The ZSUN accused the DoSE of affecting the rationalisation policy without considering the ground reality in Peren district. According to it, it was unfair to transfer dedicated teachers and demanded putting on hold the transfer orders.
The CSU called for reviewing transfer of teachers from Phek district affected under the rationalisation policy via a March 30 order, while asking the transferred teachers to remain in their place of posting till the matter was reviewed as requested. It added that teachers were being redeployed to other districts while government schools in Phek were facing teacher shortage as opposed to maintaining the Standard Staffing Pattern.
In October, the Tzürangkong Kaketshir Mungdang (Tzürangkong Students’ Conference) in Mokokchung went on protest mode, shutting down government schools in the Tzürang valley, following a redeployment order issued the same month. According to it, schools in the Tzürangkong range, which needed more teachers, were ignored in the redeployment exercise.
More recently, on December 28, the Aghünaqa Area Students’ Union (AASU) cried foul over a series of teacher transfers affected, allegedly without replacement, in the area, during the year. The AASU demanded the reversal of the transfer orders from government schools in the Aghünaqa area alongwith adequate deployment of teachers, as per the norm. It warned of prohibiting the schools from reopening in the area, capping off a year of contested teacher rationalisation exercises.
