Quality dose for DoSE

 Nagaland’s Department of School Education (DoSE) has been in the limelight for the wrong reasons especially with regard to the issue of appointment of teachers, Mid Day Meal Scheme (MDMS) and scholarships, central subsidies etc. In the recently concluded two-day 9th session of the 13th Nagaland Legislative Assembly, leader of the house and chief minister Neiphiu Rio had admitted that the DoSE has around 10,000 excess teachers. The chief minister disclosed that the number was based on the teacher:student ratio in Nagaland at 1:10 whereas, the national ratio was at 1:30. The chief minister opined that the ratio may appear good (or even par excellent) but was a matter of concern, if viewed against the backdrop of lack of teachers for maths and science as reported in several schools. The performances of government schools in HSLC examinations has been a subject of much debate and discussion over decades as most recorded very low pass percentages and some even recording ‘0’ pass percentage in comparison with private schools. The number of government school teachers in Nagaland is reportedly around 20,000. They are deployed to government primary, middle, high and secondary schools throughout the state including those under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA). The DoSe had stated that there were 1990 schools having 1,69,548 students. But the teacher-student ratio was 1:9 against the national average ratio of 1:32. “There are six government schools with zero enrolment and 32 schools with 0% pass in High School Leaving Certificate (Class X) examination.” This was echoed by the Adviser of DoSE who had disclosed that there were 11,000 excess teachers in Nagaland. The number of excess teachers varies between what the chief minister had said-10,000- on the floor of the house and what the DoSE and its Adviser had claimed to the media-11,000. Government teachers are not only overpaid in comparison with teachers in private schools, but they are also academically better qualified. Thus, the performances of government teachers, as per the annual HSLC exams can be described as ‘overpaid but underworked’. Further, what the leader of the house said is also something that continues to exist despite this being highlighted on numerous times in the media. It is about some schools having too few students (some with more teachers than students), some where teachers do not teach (truant and using proxy teachers) and some where there are ghost students whose names exist only in the registers. Members who participated in the discussion had clearly indicated that appointment of teachers, which could not be done due to the pandemic, was again prevented by the court due to ongoing cases. However, the nascent Rising People’s Party (RPP) dismissed the contention of the UDA government. RPP said in October his year, the high court had directed NPSC to carry out its recruitment process as per the service rules and in November, allowed the state government to go ahead with recruitments in Group D services that did not fall within the purview of NSSB. Controversies or scams are nothing new to the DoSE if the past serve as any indication. However, it is time that the state government seriously ponders on how to make quality its brand like how the AAP government in Delhi did with government educational institutions.