‘Resign if you don’t want to teach’ – Sukhalu to underperforming teachers

Our Correspondent
Kohima, June 21 (EMN): Coming out strongly against underperforming government schools and poor attendance of teachers in their respective school, the advisor to School Education KT Sukhalu has made it plain: “if you don’t want to teach, then resign. There are many young boys and girls who really want to teach, who have seen what’s happening in the society and want to bring about a change. Give them a chance.”

Expressing serious concern at the current system of education in Nagaland, Sukhalu pointed out that although the department has a good number of teachers – more than 20,000 giving the student-teacher ratio at 1:8 – enrolment has been going down over the years and performance going down below ‘satisfactory.’

The legislator gave the statement during the 13th annual general conference of the Nagaland School Education Administrative Officers’ Association (NSEAOA) in Kohima on Thursday morning.

Sukhalu spoke of excess teachers, and admitted that it is going to be a huge problem to bring down the number of teachers. The reason he gave was that there is ‘nothing to justify since the enrolment of students is not enough;’ instead it has been ‘spiralling down’ over the years.

To the ‘nil’ result schools, the advisor queried: “Instead of having the same review meeting every year, why can’t we start talking about how good we have done and how better we can be?” Also pointing to a number of upgraded high schools that got ‘nil results,’ he wondered “is this the way are we going to run schools and education system?”

Reminding that the responsibility of bringing change lies not only on political leadership but on every officer, Sukhalu said, “Even if we initiate change and the officer concern (sic) as an individual do not give interest then, it will result in nothing.”

Also noting issues concerning excess or shortage of teachers in some schools, he asked the officers to immediately submit the exact deployment details of staff and teachers of their respective school and area. This is to ensure that the department knows ‘exactly where to post and whom to post,’ the gathering was told. Sukhalu iterated that such a measure should not be left to the directorate’s officers. Rather, it is the field officers who have to give ‘correct feedback’ so that the department can ‘upload and work on’ it immediately.

Pointing out matter-of-factly that teachers’ attendance in schools had become a major problem in the recent times, Sukhalu strongly insisted on the need to ‘double check’ the attendance of teachers.

Apart from the biometric attendance to ensure teachers are in station, Sukhalu said that the system of disbursing salary directly to their account would be reviewed.

This, he said has been necessitated as many teachers and staff are getting paid without attending to their duties and engage in other businesses and personal works. Furthermore, he said that it will be asking half-yearly reports wherein necessary action will be initiated as per the reports.

On schools that do not have headmasters and assistant headmasters, Sukhalu said ‘intimation has been made for posting immediately in all schools.’

Also while appreciating the association as a strong association, he however reminded that ‘being strong doesn’t mean you use muscle power, you have to use your brains’ and that as they grow they should not forget their responsibilities towards their students.

Stressing on the urgent need to bring change in the education sector, Sukhalu said “we must remember that you need to give personal attention to bring up a better generation who one day will take your place. The kind of generation that you all bring up will speak volumes for you.”

Seeking the cooperation and support of the members of the association towards strengthening and streamlining the education, Sukhalu maintained that the least they can do for the younger generation who will be taking over the responsibility of governance tomorrow is to leave a legacy behind by bringing them up in the right manner. Only then, he asserted “we can say that I have done my job.”

The inaugural session was followed by discussions and declaration of new office bearers of the group.