Dr Zavise Rume
Professor, SCERT Nagaland
Jubilee is celebrated as a joy of Liberation. 75th year of Chakhesang Students’ Union (CSU) is an indication of its maturity. I congratulate and salute the founders and leaders of CSU for their determination of bringing our people together as one community under the banner of CSU. CSU has produced many leaders of Naga society. CSU became one of the most powerful organisations. Its motto: “Let the welfare of the people be the final law” has nurtured many Chakhesangs as our great patriots and today we are proud of them.
With this Motto in mind, we think of our community’s welfare first. ‘Our people first’ is our attitude.
Today, CSU must be a uniting factor to unite our hearts and to advance together as one people one community.
With the change of time, Chakhesang as a community is growing and progressing. We must ensure that the progress is continuing. We must take full advantage of the modern advancement to develop ourselves into an advanced society.
Modern education is not a tool to destroy ourselves. The present system of education is not a tool to destroy old traditions and cultures; it is not to totally replace our lives with other’s lives and cultures. Modern education is not a tool to totally finish our language and dialects. It is not preparing us only for examination, passing degrees after degrees or earn diplomas after diplomas.
In fact, it is to develop us into a total human-being and build a productive society.
Therefore, we must use modern education to develop the potentialities and resources of each individual into a strong society of professionals.
Every individual is born with multiple talents and innate potentialities and there is an unending inner human transformation into a refined person.
We can’t stop change. We can’t stop education. It is a continuous process. Modern education is designed to help us in developing and nurturing our innate qualities into refined individuals. Traditionally, pragmatism is the Naga philosophy of education where learning was emphasized as a result of practice. Nagas had a refined system of indigenous education.
Our education system must find its basis. We must lay the foundation of our education on our own culture. Our culture is our foundation. Our indigenous knowledge and cultural and traditional practices must be the basis and foundation of our modern education.
We must go out to study in schools, colleges and universities, learn new knowledge, skills and technologies, go to the outside world and acquire new skills and we must come back home to improve our own indigenous knowledge and cultural practices.
We must use modern science and technology, newly acquired knowledge and skills to improve our cultures and indigenous knowledge.
We must acquire employability skills and build a community of skilled labour force. We must respond to a changing requirement in the modern skill-based job market. We must form a guild of skilled professionals.
Degrees or diplomas alone cannot assure us jobs. We must acquire and develop employability skills. We must create skilled labor force. We must create manpower and workforce of skilled professionals. ‘Regular Study and Repeated Practice’ should be adopted as a strategy to prepare ourselves to be skillful. We must ensure that all educated persons in our community are productive and employable.
We must promote skill-based job-oriented courses in schools and colleges in our community. We must phase out theoretical and bookish courses being replaced by skill-based job-oriented courses. We must make Chakhesang area a land of skill development with full of training on skill development, entrepreneurship development and economically gainful job-oriented activities. In the 21st century, those who cannot be employed will be considered as illiterates. We must think of education in terms of career development. We must ensure that career guidance is provided to students in schools and colleges in our community. We must assess if the courses introduced in our schools, colleges and universities really give us a lot of employment avenues. We must seek for practical oriented skill-based education.
Among the Nagas community in Nagaland, Chakhesang is also presently categorised as a Backward Tribe, simply because the number of employees in the Government/ public sector from our community is too less. People generally call all of us together as backward simply because we are much inadequately represented in the State Government services. We are poorly represented in the Government service which is not proportionate to the size of our population. Comparing to other advanced tribes, we are only few in number in the State Government service from the top bureaucracy to the lowest post/ peon/chowkidar, from DGP to constable, from principals/headmasters to teachers. Our presence in Directorates and headquarters is negligible.
In every field, we are not there in sufficient numbers proportionate to the size of our population. Therefore, we must rise to work hard. We must compete with the world. We must win. We should conquer. We must defeat backwardness. We must advance. We must also ask the State Government to review the State policy of Advanced and Backward tribes and job reservations. Let us do away with Backwardness tag being replaced by refineness in our attitude and behaviours.
If we are refined, definitely we can make our society a refined guild.
The only solution to wipeout our backwardness is to work hard, give our best and strive to excel in all our endeavours and to compete with others without fear. Fear of failure is the major cause of backwardness. “Wisdom without courage bears no fruit”. We can’t achieve anything when we fear to act. We have to overcome the fear to face the world of competition. Curiosity and burning desire to achieve are the pre-requisite qualifications for any competition. Meritocracy is the call of the day. There is no any other alternative to merit in the present world of competition. In competition, nobody can do anything to help. The individuals will have to face it well.
(Delivered at the theme session of platinum jubilee of the Chakhesang Students’ Union at Phek town held from February 14, 2022)
