Down grading of school not in the hands of department: Kekhrielhoulie Yhome

Advisor School Education SCERT, Kekhrielhoulie Yhome said that down grading of a school is not in the hands of the department but it is in the hands of the school authority to bring changes in their school and in their area.
He was speaking at a two-day state level coordination and review meeting with DMAs and EBRCs at the Administrative Training Institute, Kohima on Thursday organised by Nagaland Education Mission Society, Samagra Shiksha, Kohima.
While expressing his excitement on the improvement of this year’s result, the advisor also mentioned about the need on upgradations of government higher secondary schools. He also emphasised on parents not sending their children to school and said “parents will be liable for punishment for not sending their children to school”.
“There are lots of loopholes in the department, so we need to come up with a solution to solve them,” he added.
Yhome raised concerns of parents not sending their daughters to school and helping them at home but sending only the boys to school, especially in primary and middle schools. Advisor said this practice should be done away and for this, they have come up to approach all village councils, student unions of the village and the range to be engaged.
He also said that there are almost 19,000 teachers across Nagaland and almost 2000 to 3000 teachers are using political influence.
Yhome also spoke on the need to build the calibre of leadership, stating that it was time to restrengthen and redirect the whole system by engaging the New Education Policy.
He observed that people with political influence only want to be posted in cities like Dimapur and Kohima, and those without political influence lands up serving in the remote areas and retire there. He asserted that there should be equitable and fair opportunity for everyone and to this, he said that the department will compartmentalize the 35 years of service.
He informed that there are 4 lakh students from primary to secondary level including private and government in the state where government has 1.5 lakh students and the private have 2.5 lakh students. Yhome also set a target to bring 1 lakh students back into government schools in two years.
He also stressed on the need to focus on pre-primary and primary schools and the need to establish more primary schools even in the unrecognized villages on need basis.
He informed that they have also been doing survey from ground level hoping to bring change in the whole system.
“I want less interference of political influence in education sector. We need to upgrade our school system, we might not see immediate result, but we will slowly reach there”, he stated.
Samagra Shiksha Nagaland State Mission Director, Temsunaro Aier in her keynote address, mentioned that being in education is like firefighting every day. She said by implementing NEP 2020, so many activities have been taking place and all those taking part in the missions needs to build up their resources to face those challenges and it requires the highest level of commitment and need to work from strict time bound work.
She said that the future of the children depends on the teacher’s performance. “This is not a rehabilitation camp for ailing people. Your duty is to teach in school and not to be sitting in a holiday posting,” she said.
Aier added that the main mission of this programme was to keep every children in mainstream school by 2030, and for this, they need the total commitment of every teacher. She also highlighted the need for training of educating children with special needs.
Commissioner & Secretary, School Education SCERT & Vice Chairman NEMS, Kevileno Angami, in her brief address said that, with the New Education Policy 2020 being implemented, various activities are being imposed in the state and ultimately it boils down to implementation of these activities in the blocks and schools to be carried out by the officers.
She pointed out that there are various challenges and issues when it comes to implementation of the various activities in the blocks and schools but at the same time, they are also capacitated to deal with these challenges and issues.
She stressed on the need that whatever activities are being carried out and implemented should not be just for the sake of implementing it, but to be conscious that these activities have to be meaningfully carried out and transacted in the schools.
Joint Mission Director, Samagra Shiksha Nagaland, Dr. Kevizakie Rio and Dr. Bikano Murry gave state presentations.
The program was chaired by Deputy Mission Director, Kelhikha Kenye.