The Principal Director of School Education Nagaland, Thavaseelan K speaks during the the 25th Anniversary celebration of the Nagaland Government Higher Secondary Employees Association (NGHSSEA) at Naithu Resort, Chümoukidima on October 8.
Morung Express News
Chümoukedima | October 8
The Principal Director of School Education Nagaland, Thavaseelan K today stated that the department is focusing on five key pillars of interventions to make government schools ‘interesting.’
Such interventions, he implied, would correct the gap between preference for private and government schools in Nagaland, which currently stood at around 62% for the former and 38% for the latter.
Nagaland is second after Manipur (33% Vs 67%) in the government-private schools’ ratio of students in India, he said. In States like Goa, 87 % of pupils go to Government against 13% to private schools, he highlighted.
Speaking at the 25th Anniversary celebration of Nagaland Government Higher Secondary Employees Association (NGHSSEA), the Principal Director further said that the intervention would also help in bridging the gap of results between government and private schools which presently stood at around 40%.
The target is to make the government schools the first choice of students and parents, he noted, while elaborating on the five pillars.
The first pillar was foundational numeracy and literacy. Any number of interventions at a later point in time is simply not going to have the same intended effect if you don't have the foundation, he said.
The second pillar, he informed, is bridge the gap between what's there and what's needed concerning various aspects of infrastructural requirement of the schools. A lot of work is happening every year, but then there's always a question of catching up between demand and supply, he said.
Third focus area is combination of response, curriculum, pedagogy and assessment, he added. The curriculum includes facing adversaries, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, pre-vocational interventions, Thavaseelan informed.
The fourth pillar was children with special needs, not only in terms of physical but mental abilities, he said.
The final pillar was ‘vocationalisation of education’ with the understanding that self-employment is critical in the future, he added.
On NECTAR project, many agencies are coming on board for baseline surveys, governance and capacity building, and monitoring, he said. More importantly, a comprehensive resource centre for school education being envisaged, Thavaseelan added.
