The Headlines in the Morung Express “School Textbook Delay” fills us with shame and anger over the most irresponsible and callous attitude of the authority-the govt of the people, the Department Of School Education, and of course the complacency and silence of the teachers and students of the schools affected. But Alas! This is Nagaland, the so called Nagaland for Christ, inhabited by 99% Christians and as usual we don’t expect any good or truth but only lies and blame game. Lofty thoughts and ideas are ranted out almost every day by people at the helm of affairs but finally, all that they really care about or let’s say their ultimate goal is ‘how much or how to get the maximum profit out of everything?’
Nagaland has become the hotspot to do business because of the profits involved without the actual delivery of materials nor the quality matters so long as the authorities and suppliers get their due share. Yes, business as usual, but sadly, at the receiving end is our very own children .It would have been a different story if the students in question happen to be the sons/daughters of the Netas, the Bureaucrats, the teachers, the NSF, the Reverends and the so called leaders. Are they the children of a lesser GOD? But this is Nagaland-the land of Festivals, the land of Potholes, the land of Corruption, where development takes place only in papers, where crusades and conventions abound but after all the sound and fury all that’s left is empty rhetoric sans any ethics or morality. All the latest cars/gadgets will be readily available in Nagaland while the children of the voiceless parents whom we proudly call the future of tomorrow are left in the most pitiable and deplorable condition. Off late, the condition of most government schools making headlines looks haunted or on the verge of collapse, forget about the infrastructure and environment of learning, now the latest system of education in Nagaland is “ to learn without textbooks’. What an irony! while those responsible for the sorry state of affairs can easily afford to send their children to study even abroad and spend lavish holidays, the least they care about and the last thing on their mind seems to be the fate of these poor students. The ideal environment for learning is not only freedom from miscreants and taxations but includes learning infrastructures, dedicated faculty and freedom from discrimination too.
All such things makes us think that we are Christians by default, by word of mouth and prayers not by deeds or love. We worship God with our lips & wealth but we worship wealth/money with our lives. Is this the future we envision for our children? a future of inequalities and great divides between the haves and have not’s, or a future of a classless society where everyone is treated equally and resources shared equally where every citizen live with dignity . Let us for once look at ourselves honestly and have the courage to point fingers at ourselves instead of others and set our own houses in order and thereby prove that our Christianity is not a dead faith but a living and true faith.
Seyievino Angela
Chandmari, Kohima
