In Viphoma Village, lack of teachers and infrastructure in the Government Middle School has caused massive drop in enrollment
Morung Express News
Viphoma | June 7
Viphoma village under Kohima district is about 70 kilometers away from the State Capital. No proper roads connect this village to the capital.
Viphoma has a Government Middle School which was established in 1963 as a primary school and upgraded to middle school in 2010 by the then Chief Minister of Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio.
In recent years, the enrollment of students in the village has dropped down from 86 students to 37 students in 2016. A teacher passed away a few years ago yet, no replacement has been sent despite appeals made to the Department of School Education by the school and the village. The school has been functioning without a Science teacher for more than a year now. At present only seven teachers are tirelessly running the school all by themselves. Forget libraries or laboratories; the school does not even have a single non-teaching staff.
“This is mainly because of the shortage of teachers,” says the Head Teacher, Thinovilie Nakhro. There are 9 teachers at present however two teachers are undergoing B.Ed training, while the remaining seven run the school which has nine classrooms. Due to the shortage of teachers, the school eventually had to drop Class 8. Further contemplations were made on discontinuing Class 7 too but after the request of the parents in the village, Class 7 has been continued.
Three SSA teachers in the school were transferred to other villages and no replacements were provided. Among the transferred teachers included the sole Science teacher of the school. A Math teacher was sent in as replacement. The School has continued to function without any Science teacher, whereby the Math teacher is now teaching both Science as well as Math classes.
The Village Education Council (VEC) Chairman mentioned that even in the early years of the school, the VEC had to finance private tutors to teach in the school and that the teachers also collected money from their own salary to hire more teachers. “Teachers are needed for the school to progress. We complained to the officials but it all ended with verbal promises,” the Chairman lamented. To add to their grief, no maintenance or repairing grants for the school are given.
Because of the teacher shortage and discontinuation of Class 8, many parents now incur extra expenses for their children’s education outside the village. With great difficulty, parents in Viphoma village are sending their children for higher studies in Kohima and Medziphema.
The Angami Students’ Union (ASU) which initiated an education tour in 2015 in the Angami regions to investigate on the quality of education in government schools mentioned that the most common grievances in all the villages has been the shortage of teachers, and particularly the lack of language teachers.
“There is not even a single Language teacher in the schools,” lamented Dievi Yano, President of the ASU. Yano noted that despite the best and most qualified teachers employed in the government schools, the students do not receive any quality education. “The students are not able to compete with the rest. Despite being a part of the capital district, the students in the government schools are regressing,” added Yano. The ASU President informed that the report of the union’s education tour would be released next month.
Meanwhile, the Government Middle School in Viphoma continues to suffer from shortage of teachers, and lack of infrastructure and funds.
Lamenting over the condition of the school and the students in the village, an elder stated: “We also want our children to learn and progress.”
