Veroli Zhimo
The issue of shortage of teachers for government schools of Nagaland is a rather strange one considering that the State Government, specifically the Chief Minister, admitted that the Education department has 10,000 excess teachers, during the assembly session in November 2021.
However, despite the surplus, as of November 2021, there were 188 vacancies for teaching posts, out of which there were 112 vacancies for science teachers and 76 for mathematics teachers.
Over the past few weeks, various organisations have highlighted instances of teacher shortages in various parts of the State. The most recent being the organisations from Tzürangkong range of Mokokchung district.
On September 17, the Tzürangkong Students’ Conference (TKM) initiated a joint meeting along with civil society organisations as well as School Management and Development Committees of all affected villages, and expressed its displeasure over the lack of response from the Department of School Education, Nagaland with regard to its May 10 protest demanding sufficient government school teachers.
The meeting focused on the “imbalanced distribution of teachers” in Nagaland government schools. Members maintained that some schools have many excess teachers that they do not know their own colleagues, while others are eagerly awaiting the arrival of new teachers.
A similar concern was also shared by the Konyak Students’ Union (KSU) in August 27.
During school visits to determine why there were ‘nil results’ from Government High Schools (GHS) in Mon village and Chenloisho village in the 2022 HSLC examinations, the KSU was of the view that “the concerned authority is equally responsible for bringing out the worst results by not appointing subject teachers.”
It pointed out that both the schools have shortage of teachers including lack of Head Master and Asst Head Master. And in the case of GHS Chenloisho, the School Management Committee (SMC) and Village Council reportedly recruited two teachers out of their own expenses.
Another instance is the Government Middle School (GMS) in Yali village in the Sangyochung range of Tuensang district, which has been running without Science and Mathematics subject teachers, for the past 14 years. The GMS in Longtang village, in the same range, has also been running without English and Hindi subject teachers for nine years, according to the Sangyochung Range Students’ Union (SRSU) on August 30.
Worryingly, it also said that the GHS Ngoungchung, which incidentally is also the only high school in the entire region, has been running without a Headmaster or Assistant Head Master since the year 2016.
This shortage in government schools, especially in the remote areas of the state, has continued to be a recurrent dilemma for years now. This is despite the 10,000 excess teachers, and the Department of School Education’s ‘rationalisation’ exercise in April, which sought to address the issue, but instead, created more inconsistencies at the school level, as claimed by various organisations.
Among others, was the Zeliangrong Students’ Union Nagaland (ZSUN) which, on April 3, pointed out that the decision of redeployment of teachers was being done without considering the practical ground realities that student community and public were facing in Peren district.
In this context, it would seem that the Department of School Education needs more impetus in order to address this conundrum, especially considering the loss of learning incurred by students as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Notably, the State Advisor for School Education and NCERT, KT Sukhalu said on November 26 last year, a “huge chunk” of teachers are “untrained” and also “untrainable,” while responding to a question during the Assembly Session.
The Advisor had said that the Nagaland government has “moved a proposal to the Government of India (GoI) asking if they could assist the state and give a golden handshake for those teachers who can’t be trained, is untrainable or cannot teach the present subject matters and the new courses.”
The GoI’s response or lack of response (whichever is applicable) to the proposal has not been made public so far.
It is understood that the teacher shortage problem, obviously, does not have a quick fix. However, considering the bleak situation all across the state, it would augur well for the School Education sector to seriously analyse the problem from bottom to top, and introduce actionable reforms.
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