Nagaland Government Higher Secondary School Employees Association (NGHSSEA) has expressed strong resentment against the purported intention of the department of school education to issue notification pertaining to work distribution between principals and headmasters in the existing 41 Government Higher Secondary Schools (GHSSs) in Nagaland without assessing the infrastructures and staff positions at the school level.
In a press release, NGHSSEA president Kelhikha Kenye and general secretary Chungngam Konyak claimed that the official notification, which the department was contemplating to issue, would create two heads under one GHSS, which, they maintained was not feasible at this juncture.
Asserting that it would not compromise the “cohesiveness of school administration”, NGHSSEA said creation of two independent heads under one establishment would create confusion in staff management, school infrastructure, conduct of examinations, sport weeks, literary activities and other co-curricular activities.
The association also questioned the “logic and rationality” of the department for making such move at this juncture when the academic session was in full progress.
Further, NGHSSEA said the move was unacceptable as it would adversely affect the students and disrupt smooth functioning of the school.
It expressed strong belief that such steps should be made after proper examination of the school infrastructure and the staff positions were put in place. “Otherwise it will be an irreparable blunder as it involves the career of thousands of students,” they said. Reminding that the students enrolled in government schools were mostly from economically less privileged sections, NGHSSEA said in the process of government/department distributing “breads and cakes” to the principals and headmasters, the future of students would be trampled upon mercilessly.
NGHSSEA requested the education department to keep the contemplated notifications in abeyance and properly analyze the ground reality.
Pointing out that NBSE results showed comparatively consistent pass percentage of students in GHSSs, it said hasty move by the government to keep two independent heads in each GHSS would be at the cost of innocent school students and reduce accountability and responsibility.
NGHSSEA further pointed out that the most of the problems in the department was due to the anomalies of the “Revamping and Restructuring of School Education- 2011”. The association suggested that it should be amended at the earliest either by the department or by setting up ‘high power committee’.
Stating that the problems in the education department was mostly structural and systemic lapses, NGHSSEA said if the government issue such notifications to keep two heads in each GHSS it would only worsen and complicate the conflict and problems that was already there in the department. The association said student welfare should be the top priority of every stakeholder in the department, adding that in order to provide quality education in the state, any policies and steps to be taken must be based on the merit.
NGHSSEA cautioned that if the notification was issued and the students were victimized, it would not remain a silent spectator but would resort to its own course of action, for which the government will be held responsible.
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