ILLUSTRATION by SÜNGKÜM
EDUCATION AND NAGALAND Cdt. Shalo Nsu Rengma, Class- VIII, Sainik School Punglwa It seems we Nagas have compromised Nagaland as being an uneducated State. In Nagaland many officers, MLAs and politicians and the so-called respectable people educate themselves to practice more corruption. Nagaland is a Sate where, if people loose hope in their studies, they simply join the Naga army (underground) and threaten people to pay taxes. Nagaland is also a multitribal state where many tribes strive only for their own development. If Nagaland is an educated state, than who is answerable to the deplorable road conditions? Why are they not maintained or even looked at? What’s the condition of the drainage systems? Why have they become a massive garbage dump? Why are
our Capital and other towns so dirty?? Why are the people so corrupted and why are we not developing??? All these things are happening because we are not educated properly! The most important thing is what is happening to the people of Nagaland? Why are they not fighting against these social evils when the whole mainland is against it?! Don’t they long for a developed, peaceful and corruption free state? Why are we not helping our own brothers and sisters? Summing up, I would like the people of Nagaland to wake up and stop dreaming. We have to educate our selves MORALLY. We have to show the present corrupted leaders that we can be better dynamic leaders.
EDUCATION IN NAGALAND Ato I. Yeptho, Aghunato Town In Nagaland, when we talk about Education we are redirected to the Education Department under the Government of Nagaland. Sadly, it is the most tainted department with maximum resources from different perspectives, however, when it comes to imparting education it does not compare with the private institutes. The main blocks for the Government to provide quality education are due to: a) Low Education department standards (not having competent faculty) b) No uniform process for appointing dedicated teachers c) Lack of interest/zeal by high government officials in education department
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Some measures to improve quality education in our State are: 1) Appointing dedicated teaching staff 2) Non-proxy teachers 3) Setting up of DIET centre throughout the Districts 4) Develop and maintain a uniform or standard infrastructure for all Government institutions. Above all, the staff and colleagues working under Nagaland’s education department should be focused on education that is based on quality standards rather than only thinking about their salaries and increments. Hats off to all private institution for imparting quality education, and those who are tirelessly working for the future generations.
Education in Nagaland?
A Good Idea! Seyiekhrielie Whiso, Kohima Science College, Jotsoma Your topic for the month ‘Education in Nagaland’ reminds me of a cheeky comment made by the great Mahatma when he was asked what he thought of western civilization. His answer was “a good idea.” I know to borrow this to assess the education in our state is not fair. (Our NBSE is second to none in the country, we have two colleges graded A by the nononsense NAAC-UGC, and we do have some wellmeaning people staffing some of our schools and colleges.) I think, broadly speaking, education has failed to climb as much as it should in our state. And what makes one sadder is the fact that we did get the opportunities once upon a time not that we do not have them now. A quick list: NEHU is one of the best universities in India now. Our beloved NU is ranked 8th out of the 9 universities in NE assessed and accredited by NAAC. (This data is about four years old.) And to think that we started together. We have also said ‘no’ to a medical, engineering and IT institute. One squirms with regret when one realizes that we could also have been an educational and research hub. For too long we have treated education as only a teacher-student affair, and this is helped by the fact that Nagas are lackadaisical about so many issues including education. As a cog (read teacher) in this great machinery, I understand that I cannot shy away from blame and responsibility, but to a great degree, we, as a society is to be blamed for the situation we are in now. We have also seen and are witnessing now the danger of treating education as an employment scheme only. Very unfortunately, the actual harvest of the whirlwind will be realized after a generation. Because the effects (either good or bad) of education are not seen immediately, I think, we tend to be careless about it. This failure to appro-
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priate education as ‘ours’ and working accordingly, as I see it, is one of the chief causes of our state languishing in one of the lower rungs even in the North East context. It’s time the public, who are the most important stakeholders, showed more concern and vision for our education system. Leaving aside the moral/ethical aspect, education is the only foundation on which we need to build our super structure. We need a serious attitudinal shift when it comes to careers and career prospects in Nagaland. (I am happy to see that since the 90s there has been a paradigm shift albeit slight.) Somehow we have refused to understand that no two individuals are alike and as far as possible they should be guided (in the early stages) in the direction that they may excel and also love. Individuals are not empty vessels all waiting to be filled with the same thing. There are individual differences and hence intelligence differences. (Psychologists have listed eight kinds of intelligences not vertically but horizontally.) For too long we have put too much premium (even exaggerated importance) only on administrative services and technical services important as they are, while foolishly ignoring our pre-primary, primary and school sectors. It is a well know fact that in developed countries a primary school teacher is paid as much as a doctor or administrator. They also have status in the society. The rest is a healthy cycle that works to the advantage of the society. No doubt they are advanced. I would say that they are, though difficult to admit, generations ahead of us. And you know why. My conclusion: the people (and they also should be well-trained people who consider teaching a career not just a job) and system that come in contact with our children – and what more precious gift you have – especially in their formative and impressionable period should be treated with the utmost care and given the best in terms of respect and salary and perks. For these teachers do the most important job in our society.
“The education system of Nagaland provides the highest quality of education to produce statesman of international stature and peacemakers. In Nagaland, education is a continuous process in the real sense of the term, in the pursuit of excellence in every field, that the people become not only self-reliant, but the state becomes a giving state. Nagaland is a state of knowledge seekers. The people of Nagaland look forward for higher knowledge keeping in mind the value of knowledge in nation building”.
K. S. Pandey, Senior Accountant, S. D. Jain Girls’ College