Dr Kekhrielhoulie Yhome, Advisor of School Education and SCERT admitted that the Nagaland Education Department was in a total mess but assured that they are able to find out most of the problems and hope to bring in solution at the earliest.
Addressing a press conference today at Japfü Hotel in Kohima, the Advisor said that five months back, the Department of School Education did not know how many teachers were under them and had done a lot of survey and come up with a data of government schools.
Dr Yhome said that some of biggest challenge in the department were teachers being “tossed around”, no professional growth within the teachers, not appreciating dedicated teachers and also educators transferring themselves wherever they like using political connections. These are the areas where the government needs to regularly intervene and be updated, he added.
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While appreciating the students unions in Nagaland who are working diligently to bring changes in the education system, he said that these unions were “motivated for change because they have hope for future”. The Advisor, however regretted that some of the village councils may be “hand in gloves” with the proxy teachers, sharing their salaries.
He assured that the department is working to overcome the issue on proxy teachers and to stop this menace completely. He also admitted that there are shortages of teachers since the recruitment had not been done for a long time and they are also bringing a solution to that too.
He maintained that Nagas must rid ourselves of the mentality that government schools are for poor students. Dr Yhome highlighted that many of the government higher secondary schools are most sought after by students from private schools because the private schools are not able to provide the facilities like the government secondary schools. He disclosed that the department is planning to sign a memorandum of understanding to give first preference to the government school passed out students.
He also admitted that no major repairing in schools have been made since most they were constructed, mostly in the 70’s, emphasising that Delhi also needs to understand the need of major change in education sector in the state. He said that in Nagaland, the school education system is the second largest in term of personnel strength but when it comes to expenditure, the school education is the largest. Rs 1730 crore is spent just for the salary of staff and teachers, he informed.
Dr Yhome presented a list of the overall retiree list of teachers as of 31 December 2024 where a total of 510 teachers and staffs will be retiring stating that once these teachers retire “we will have a high shortage of teachers again.”
He said “seniority has killed the education department and has affected school education very thoroughly.” He said the directorate is working very hard, run by directors, additional directors but there is lack of cooperation with the senior officers. “They were teachers who were standing in the classroom throughout their life then they come to directorate and they know nothing about administration, which they have zero knowledge,” he said, stressing the need to remove the practice of sen teachers to the department based on their seniority,
Dr Yhome also mentioned that parents are imposed to send their students to private school despite of their financial background because of the poor infrastructure and absence of teachers in the government schools. This, he said, causes some poor rural parents to fall into debt. It is important to bring back the education system to improve rural economy, he added.
The Advisor also highlighted the shortage of staff in the directorate and stated that the government has to do something because they are helpless. On the transfers of teachers, he said that there is need to recognise real people with real problems.
Dr Yhome assured that the department will remain stern and work hard to improve the system of education in Nagaland.
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The numbers of government teachers are listed below:
Numbers of government schools: 1939 (GPS-1050, GMS-595, GHS- 242, GHSS- 52)
Post Graduate Teachers: 595 (Reg- 443, Adhoc- 2, Contractual- 135; Fixed- 11)
Graduate teachers: 4973 (Reg- 3807, Adhoc- 513, Contractual- 503; Fixed- 150)
182 Graduate teachers attached to Non-Teaching line.
Primary Teachers: 9520 (Reg- 7694, Adhoc- 1672, Contractual- 24; Fixed- 130)
Language Teacher: 131 (Reg- 61, Adhoc- 23, Contractual- 33; Fixed- 14)
Three Language Teachers attached to Samagra Shiksha.
Graduate Teachers (Hindi): 158 (Reg- 149, Centrally Sponsored Scheme- 9)
Under Graduate Hindi Teachers: 1801 (Reg- 1315, CSS- 470, Adhoc- 15, Fixed pay- 1)
Four Under Graduate Hindi Teachers attached to Non-Teaching line
Physical Education Teachers: 184 (Reg- 127, Adhoc- 55, Contractual- 1; Fixedpay- 1)
Vocational Teachers /Trainer: 114 (Adhoc- 3, Contractual- 102; Fixed Pay- 1)
Secretariat Deployment as of July 2023 (School Education): 4
Nagaland Secretariat Service (NSS) deployment as of July 2023 (School Education) total strength: 11
Total number of employees in the Directorate of School Education (DSE): 341 (68 designation)
Total number of employees in Department of School Education: 3780
