‘Poor results of govt schools despite crores of rupees pumped in’
DIMAPUR, MAY 23 (MExN): The Opposition Congress has lambasted the poor results of the government run schools which were declared by the Nagaland Board of Secondary Education (NBSE) on May 21. The Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) in a press statement issued by its Media Cell claimed that the declining standards and poor results by the government schools is a consequence of the NPF led DAN government’s random politicization of education over the past decade.
“Thousands of teachers were illegally appointed through backdoor, transfers with post leading to over staffing in urban areas while leaving a skeletal strength in rural areas, turning a blind eye to the practice of substitution, misappropriation of mid day meals schemes, free uniform and text books, development of school infrastructure are some of the major factors that has hampered the growth of government schools,” stated the NPCC.
The NPCC pointed to the government schools abysmal percentage (37.25%) of successful candidates as against the outstanding percentage of 88.36% from private schools in HSLC results. This, it said, highlights the deficiency level of our educational system in the government run institutions.
In this regard, the Opposition Congress has claimed that over the years, hundreds of crore have been generously pumped in by the central government especially through schemes like SSA & RMSA to augment the quality of teachers, school infrastructure, providing free uniform and text book for students, mid day meals to name a few, but it has become a source of embezzlement for some corrupt leaders and officials.
“This has led to preference for administrative assignment posts with reluctance to take up teaching assignments among the government teachers save for some few dedicated ones, leading to an output of further degradation rather than improvement in the quality of education,” it stated.
Further, the NPCC pointed out that in recent years, thousands of teachers have been recruited through open competitive exam in addition to regularizing thousands of adhoc bogus teachers under the school education department. However it stated that the ground scenario was entirely different with “nonexistent teachers and random placement of unqualified substitutes becoming a malady.”
“The dilapidated infrastructure of the schools in most cases also lent credence to the fact as to where all the money meant for the development of school infrastructure has disappeared,” it stated while pointing to the recent picture of GHS Tamlu in crumbled state published in all local dailies on May 11, 2013 and stating that this testifies to the sorry state of affairs. It also went on to add that the “pathetic or nonexistent infrastructure in most of the government schools especially in rural areas has led to a skewed ratio where the number of posted teachers outnumbers the students.”
Therefore, the NPCC advised that the NPF led DAN government stop siphoning off funds meant for development of the government schools and start holding officials at all levels accountable for their actions. Along with this, the teachers are also to be held accountable for poor results, the NPCC stated pointing out that the government teachers are paid over three fold salaries than their private counterparts and that when their private counterparts can produce excellent results with just a meager pay in comparison, there can be no room for excuses.
Stating that when a person none other than the Chief Minister himself had expressed dismay over the performance of government schools as reported by the local dailies on May 23, 2013, the NPCC pointed out that this “portrays the decline in the standards of education imparted by government schools over the years and failure by the NPF led DAN government under his leadership for the past 10 years to address the factors responsible for hampering quality education in government schools.”
With the beginning of DAN III, the NPCC stated that the onus still lies with the Chief Minister and the Minister for School Education to fix accountability on the factors responsible rather than shifting blame, before it is ‘too little too late.’
The NPCC congratulates all the successful candidates in the recently declared HSLC & HSSLC results by the NBSE. A special compliment is extended to all the toppers who have worked hard to distinguish themselves among thousands of students from across the state. The NPCC also commends the private schools and their teachers for their dedication in producing an outstanding percentage of successful candidates while the performance of the government high schools left a lot to be desired.
