Nagaland is cleaning up the mess in the School Education Department by closing down non-performing government schools and merging schools with poor enrolment.
It is encouraging that the Government of Nagaland has finally gathered the courage to clean up the mess in the School Education Department—a mess that has been allowed to pile up for decades under the watch of successive governments, educationists and leaders. Dozens of government schools with poor enrolment are reportedly being closed, while many others are being merged as part of the ongoing rationalisation exercise. This is a much-needed measure to address the state’s peculiar situation of having both an abundance of schools and an acute shortage of functioning, quality educational institutions. However, there is more to this mess than meets the eye. The closure and merger of schools alone cannot fix a system that has been allowed to fester for years. People in remote villages need government schools far more than their counterparts in urban areas, yet they are more likely to be deprived of quality education for several reasons, including poor infrastructure, acute staff shortages and, in some cases, the absence of proper school buildings altogether. Low student enrolment is not surprising when basic amenities and subject teachers are lacking. The bigger question is whether the Education Department has genuinely tried to address the problems afflicting these government schools before deciding to close or merge them. Student enrolment will naturally increase when public institutions provide quality education. While rationalisation and amalgamation are necessary in areas with a high concentration of poorly performing schools, the department should not undermine the vital role of public institutions in uplifting the underprivileged.
People are often forced to send their children to private schools despite the high cost, largely because of shortcomings in government schools. Every village should have a functional primary school with adequate teachers, staff and basic facilities. There are still more than 1,800 government schools in the state, according to the latest available data, which are more than enough to cover nearly 1,300 recognised villages. It would be unfair to take away from people the very institutions that can serve as a source of social change without first providing them with basic facilities, and then blame low enrolment for their closure. A multipronged approach is necessary to ensure that people who genuinely need these institutions are not adversely affected by the ongoing exercise, and that the remaining schools serve their fundamental purpose: providing accessible, affordable and equitable basic education to every child. The government must take its responsibility for providing quality education seriously, even if doing so requires a complete overhaul of the system. There must be a mechanism to ensure that teacher rationalisation is carried out systematically and that the practice of proxy teaching is eliminated once and for all. The presence of underqualified or incapable teachers recruited through backdoor appointments could also undermine the ongoing efforts to reform government schools. This possibility must not be overlooked if the government is serious about improving the quality of education and, consequently, increasing student enrolment.