Moa Jamir
Of late, the department of school education has been subjected to serious scrutiny, particularly over the low success rate of government schools in the High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) examination result declared on May 31.
Records showed that the government schools’ performances have declined to the lowest level in recent years, while the 2022 result further highlighted an increase in “nil/zero pass” and a decrease in 100% pass percentage.
In its clarification, the Nagaland Department of School Education (DoSE) pointed out that there was an overall decrease in pass percentage at the state level result due to COVID-19 ‘pandemic related issues’ including a ‘considerable amount of learning loss’ in 2020 and 2021. Besides, acute shortage of Mathematics and Science teachers was also attributed as a primary cause. The Department also pointed out to lack of headmasters as well as officers in educational administration for inspection and supervision at various levels.
Critics, however, were not convinced. The poor performance, among others, is due to the ‘politicisation of bureaucracy, which includes the PD system, the so-called attachment of teachers to VIPs/SDEOs/DEOs, proxy teaching system, etc,” the Rising People’s Party (RPP), one of the critics, had contended.
Arguments and counter-arguments apart, why is the issue of government schools evoking such a strong reaction each year? Analysing the questions holistically perhaps could offer a way out of this vicious circle of underperformance and blame game.
At the outset, the public education system is the sole option for thousands of students from both the accessibility and affordability point of view. Hence, ensuring affordable good quality education in government schools must be the primary duty of any government of the day as well as other stakeholders.
The pivotal nature of the government is more illustrated if viewed from the context of the dropout rate - the proportion of pupils from a cohort enrolled in a given level at a given school year who are no longer enrolled at any grade in the following school year; and retention rate - the percentage of a cohort of pupils (or schools) enrolled in a first grade of a given level of education in a given school year who are expected to reach the last grade of the level.
On both parameters, the State is floundering. As per the Unified District Information System For Education Plus (UDISE+) 2020-21 report, the dropout rate in Nagaland at Secondary (Class 9-10) was fourth the highest in India at 24.4% against the national average of 14.6%. Again, the retention rate - Higher Secondary (Class 1 to 12) in Nagaland was third lowest in India at 27.4%, indicating that nearly two-thirds of the students joining Class 1 in a given year do not reach class 12.
Consequently, the availability of government institutions is crucial in checking such discrepancies. Take the case of schools up to Class 10. As per the UDISE, there are 462 private and 316 government schools offering HSLC level education in Nagaland.
Out of this, the 2022 HSLC result indicated that a total of 219 were located either in Kohima or Dimapur district alone. It assumes greater importance at the HSSLC level. The UDISE reflected that there were 141 private and 56 government schools offering higher secondary level education in the State. However, out of 141, a total of 96 private schools offering the most popular Arts stream were located in Kohima, Dimapur and Mokokchung. In some districts, government institutions were the only avenue available for students to pursue higher secondary education within their districts.
The above illustrations clearly demonstrate how Government schools are imperative in correcting regional disparities in imparting education even up to higher secondary education level. Regrettably, while government schools are an integral part of the education system, particularly till the high school level, it is more notorious for underperformance, inadequacies and mismanagement, than anything else.
As essential and affordable public goods, the utility of government schools cannot be simply restricted to the debate over results, but by holistically analysing the issue to bring about equity and quality, and serve the public interest. As reflected in a two-part series by The Morung Express on the HSLC/HSSLC results recently, some government schools have shown that they too can compete equally with their private counterparts.
The DoSE seems to have diagnosed the problem plaguing the government schools and has pledged systemic and structural reforms. Instead of debating, the department would do well in implementing the same with added urgency, to show some positive results from next year. In the meantime, it would do well to study and adopt the best practices implemented by the well-performing government schools.
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