Phek Town Public Forum (PTPF) has expressed dismay at the growing lackadaisical attitude of the State government departments/machineries to the plight of people who were left with no option but to resort to submission of ultimatums and agitations for fulfilment of their basic needs.
In a statement, forum’s president Khosapa Venuh termed this as a worrisome trend that was becoming more like an SOP of the government, which he feared could degenerate the society and invite anarchy.
He clarified that the forum did not advocate use of force or violence in any form as a means to resolve any situation. He however lamented that repeated appeals and letters submitted by Phek Town Youth Society and Phek Town Chakhesang Students’ Union to the Department of School Education (DoSE) to improve and redress the pathetic condition of the department and teaching staff at Government Higher Secondary School (GHSS), Phek went unheard by the competent authorities.
Venuh claimed that this had led Phek Town Youth Society to serving an ultimatum to DoSE with a list of demands and threatening to shut down the school as a last resort of agitation. He also announced PTPF and frontal organisations’ full support to the two student and youth bodies in the effort to ensure quality education to students and the future generation.
He also referred to an article published in a local daily on October 16, 2020 where the School Education adviser KT Sukhalu had stated that there was an excess of 11,000 teachers in the State and then on November 25, 2021 where the chief minister had stated that there was an excess of 10,000 teachers and that the student-teacher ratio stood at 1:10, which should be 1: 25 in Nagaland.
He questioned the department for the disappearance of those excess teachers and also why there should be shortage of teachers at GHSS, Phek town when there were excess teachers.
The PTPF president alleged that there were also teachers posted to GHSS Phek without physical presence. So, he questioned the department why the sanctioned posts for GHSS Phek were extracted to feed other schools and why should students be taxed for incurring the salaries of two private teachers hired to cover the syllabus when they should be availing free education from the government institution.
According to him, the agitation itself was adversely affecting the students, necessitating the intervention of PTPF in the matter. He hoped that competent authorities of the department would be wise in recognising the matter as genuine and redress the demands at the earliest in the interest of the students, lest the matter escalated to extreme level.