Nagaland on Friday took a major step towards strengthening educational standards with the launch of the pilot phase of the Nagaland School Quality Assessment and Accreditation Framework (NSQAAF), involving 100 government and private schools across the state.
A one-day orientation programme on the NSQAAF pilot, supported by the Central Square Foundation, was held at the Capital Convention Centre on June 19 with participation from heads of institutions, proprietors of 100 selected schools, and 90 external evaluators. The initiative aims to establish a transparent and standardized framework for assessing school quality and laying the foundation for the proposed Nagaland State School Standards Authority (NSSSA).
Advisor for School Education, Dr. Kekhrielhoulie Yhome, in his speech spoke on the importance of the NSSSA in bringing positive changes to Nagaland’s education system. He shared that the new framework will help schools understand their strengths and areas for growth through a structured assessment across five key domains and encouraged schools to see the pilot as an opportunity to improve and work towards better standards. He stressed that the initiative will play an important role in shaping a stronger and brighter future for education in the state.
He said the new education policy has brought in a lot of modernization in redesigning to understand our school system in India, including Nagaland, but the school systems have been running on purely hearsay and result-oriented ranking system, for which the framework will be introduce for proper studying of every school, and the framework on building the Nagaland School Standards Authority will be purely based on all workings and information accessible to the public.
He also stated that the domains to evaluate schools are based on five domains which are administration, the curriculum, assessments, infrastructure, and inclusiveness. He said the NSQAAF are represented by 100 schools representing 50 selected schools from the private sector and another 50 selected schools from the government sector. He informed that Nagaland have roughly 1900 government schools and 880 private schools and a dozen of central schools with about 34,000 teachers in both the private and government sector where one teacher is available for every 12 students which he called it very healthy. Besides, many schools in our state have confronting issues and in the process of clearing these issues such as zero students or very less students, the process of closing down schools in the form of amalgamation have been undertaken. But in response to give children the ‘Right to Education’, many schools are also opened and regulated, by re-authoring the school system and redesigning the structure of government schools, he added.
Commissioner & Secretary, School Education and Chairperson of Interim NSSSA, Kevileno Angami in her speech, highlighted that the NSQAAF was a proposal for standardized criteria for all private or government schools, to evaluate, assess and see whether the schools are to make improvements. She stated that this framework is not just a one-time exercise but will be a permanent independent regulatory governing body. She explained the NSQAAF piloting is critical as the information gathered through this pilot will provide the primary information to know whether the school is heading in the right direction. As this framework is grounded in the National Education Policy, she said it would shape the state’s own schools and urged the schools to regularly carry out these exercises for revised and improvised as the inputs provided through this piloting are meant to be informed to parents and all the state owners
Additional Secretary, Department of School Education and SCERT, Vikhweno Chale, while highlighting on the Introduction to NSQAAF, NSSSA and the Pilot, shared NSQAAF Schools of Planning and Architecture (SPA), National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 introduced a tagging shift in how school quality compliance and accreditation has to be managed and the framework prioritizes learning outcomes, transparency and self-assessment following National Assessment Program (NAP) developed by the NCERT in collaboration with various stakeholders. She said this framework has been adapted under the Ministry of Education that will be used to assess the performance of our schools, having five domains, 53 sub domains and 338 standards, and each group has to perform those criteria, standards as this standard setting is to provide a health checkup of overall education system which contains essential quality standards.
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She mentioned that each domain is assigned with three levels that will apply from preschool to class 12 and the Nagaland State School Standards Authority response to maintain minimum quality and professional standards. She also asked parents not to judged schools based on hearsay as there is very little knowledge and reliable information about a school, but with the framework, one can have access to reliable information about the quality of schools as NAP 2020 has set out a correction technique with three policies for the school system namely self-assessment for continuous improvement, transparency and accountable. She therefore called upon the schools to contextualize this framework with honesty and sincerity while responding to this pilot as their feedback and views will help develop a good framework.
Director SCERT and Member NSSSA, Keruupfeu Rupreo in her welcome address said to strengthen the quality of school education in Nagaland and to provide every child with meaningful, inclusive and high-quality learning opportunities, it becomes essential to shared understanding of what quality education looks like and stressed that NSQAAF has been developed as a framework to help schools reflect on their practices, identify their trends, and recognize areas of growth designed not as a tool for judgment, but as a tool for continuous learning improvement to encourage schools to engage in all self-reflection to the journey towards excellence. While extending her appreciation to the schools, she encouraged them to participate actively, seek clarification, and engage in discussions as their inputs will be crucial in shaping framework so as to serve the needs of schools and learners.
The programme was chaired by Under Secretary, Department of School Education, while the vote of thanks was proposed by NBSE Secretary and Member Secretary, Interim NSSSA, Rangumbuing Nsarangbe. The resource persons for the orientation programme were Niharika Suresh, Prasuti Sharma and Zephyr Pegu from the Central Square Foundation.
