Students have been bearing the brunt of the pandemic-induced lockdown for months now as normal classroom learning has been disrupted. The teaching community too has had to undergo a hard time as the unprecedented crisis necessitated the need to shift from physical to virtual classroom in a short notice. The challenges of online learning like slow internet and digital divide also called for the need to come up with offline strategies to ensure that students from less privileged families and rural areas were not deprived of education. While many adapted to the change quickly and ensured continuity of learning, it was reported that some black sheep continued to mar the noble profession by not performing their duties. Owing to this old disease called “proxy teaching” continuing to affect the education system in Nagaland, the department of School Education directed all the heads of government schools to ensure registration of teachers on the Teachers App and furnish daily activity reports on the online school monitoring portal by the end of the day. It also warned of withholding the salary of the school heads who ‘wilfully fail to comply with the directives’. It was an encouraging move towards eradicating proxy teaching practice in the state and should be strictly enforced not only during the pandemic but also after.
However, the long list of absentees of government officials, as exposed by the district task forces has clearly indicated that Education department is not the only department that has been infected by disregard for one’s duties. The chief secretary of the state had directed all the HODs and AHODs to strictly implement "no work, no pay" policy as the government offices resumed on July 1 and various departments had warned of action against erring staff but the warnings fell on deaf ears. As many as 99 officers from various departments were said to be found absent from their places of posting, though a handful of them were said to have genuine reasons like medical ailment, dual charge and official duty. The chief secretary had sought explanation for noncompliance of the government’s directive. It’s a commendable move, something that should have been initiated long ago. The fact that employees didn’t pay heed to government’s directive even after repeated warnings indicates that many are already immune to such caveat. The state government should take stern action against all defaulters, including officers and teachers and set a precedent set for how similar cases will be dealt with in the future as well. "No work, no pay" policy is too lenient as defaulters are not only denying hundreds of young and capable educated people of employment but also doing disservice to the society. Non performing employees deserve termination from their positions.