School Education Department holds review meeting to discuss poor result of govt schools
Chizokho Vero
Kohima | June 20
The Nagaland State School Education Department today held a discussion on the poor performance of government schools in the High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) Examination 2018.
The pass percentage of government schools in the recent exam was 40.77%, a decrease from 42.6% in the 2017.
Speaking at the meeting in Kohima, School Education Advisor, KT Sukhalu called for a new attitude and approach to ensure that this poor record comes to an end. “By next year, I don’t want to see any government school with nil result,” he said.
He pointed to poor foundation at the primary and elementary levels as one factor. He lamented that despite recruiting 2700 teachers under SSA, the results are deteriorating. “Before recruitment, result was more than 60% but it has coming down to 40%,” he said. He also expressed concern over poor enrolment in the government schools.
Sukhalu urged teachers to initiate house to house visits to keep in touch with parents, stating this would improve school attendance. On the non posting of headmasters and assistant headmasters in some schools, he assured that the government would look into it within a month.
He also informed that the department would be posting math and science teachers where needed while also dealing with the issue of excess teachers in some schools. The Advisor then called for half yearly reports from all government schools.
Sukhalu also stressed on the need to work out the exact position of the staff and asked the concerned officers to update the same so as to enable the department to do proper rationalization. As of today, the student to teacher ratio is 1:8 but the actual requirement is 1:25.
“We have excess teachers. What we actually require will be around 8000 to 9000 but today we have more than 20,000 teachers,” he said.
He also informed that within a month, all teachers should submit their Aadhaar numbers. “Those teachers who do not submit their Aadhaar number, their salary should not be prepared,” he said.
To the teachers, the Advisor said: “Your commitment was to serve, your commitment was to build a better society, your commitment was to build a better Nagaland.”
Department to review Communitization Act
Menukhol John, Principal Secretary of School Education meanwhile stressed on the need to do serious soul searching and come out with a way forward to improve the overall system.
On being informed that some Village Education Committees (VECs) are over exerting their powers, John stated that the department is going to review the Communitization Act soon.
He also said, henceforth, the concerned school authorities can post their problems on the department portal for immediate action.
Decrease in pass percentage
Principal Director for School Education, Smita Sarangi stressed on the decrease in pass percentage of government schools and informed that 61 government high schools did not appear in the HSLC examination 2018.
She said during the last five years, the average pass percentage of Government schools in HSLC has increased, but in 2018 there was a decrease of 1.83%.
She further informed that 66.95% of the total government schools pass percentages were found to be below 40%. Further 12 government schools achieved 100% pass percentage.
