Aheli Moitra
A friend posted the results of the Nagaland Board of School Education’s classes 10 (HSLC) and 12 (HSSLC) examinations on a social networking forum and labelled them, ‘Sovereignty!’
Indeed, for many students the results will mean an independent road ahead to determine their own future. Some of the toppers interviewed by this newspaper had already determined specific paths to take up.
One wants to traverse the road through St. Edmund’s College Shillong towards becoming a lecturer of History. She enjoyed the study of history, she said, and gave immense credit to her teachers. Another wants to be a chartered accountant, another a doctor and one a teacher.
Year after year, the top charts of Nagaland’s examination results have been ruled by women. It is encouraging to note that families living in Nagaland’s urban sector are giving equal opportunities of study and accomplishment to their girl children.
But the heart goes out to the young students in government schools, both in the urban as well as the rural sector. Out of the 67 schools that secured 100% pass percentage, 62 were private schools while 5 were government schools. On the contrary, out of the 31 schools that showed nil results, 30 were government schools while one was a private school. These numbers should not come as a surprise. If you are poor and marginalised in Nagaland, you do not have the right to “sovereignty.” Government schools, in many places, are falling apart. Over the past years we have seen government school teachers employed under various centrally sponsored schemes—SSA, RMSA, Hindi—more on the streets (trying to claim their basic salaries) than in their schools. Some teachers who enjoy fixed employment and timely salaries are not bothered to report to their schools of deputation. Even when students were left to learn on their own, textbooks are missing. In some places, school buildings are without walls, their roofs ready to fall. In others, a school has been sanctioned but the building doesn’t exist. After making it through these hurdles, when the student comes home, the parents are overburdened with poverty to guide the child.
The government, being a body for social, economic, cultural and political welfare of the people, has abdicated its responsibilities towards the next generation by adding to their oppression within the new global systems. This does not mean that children are growing up without knowledge being passed on to them. Thanks to the traditional systems still intact, at least the youth are able to pick up knowledge from their fields, of their seeds, through their parents, in the forest or at the market. In that, the State, with a government, is almost pointless to the determination of their future.
While wishing all students the very best for each of their futures, let us hope that the toppers will live up to their careers but also make changes to the society which has blunted the opportunities that could have been; that they will speak up for the rights of all in economic-socio-political decision making, for good and free education for all, and the right to 'sovereignty and self determination' for all.
Other notes may be sent to moitramail@yahoo.com
