Nagaland School Education department plans to introduce world-class, future-ready skills, strengthen school standards, adopt PISA elements and make leadership training mandatory for teacher promotions.
KOHIMA — Advisor for School Education Kekhrielhoulie Yhome said the School Education department is working towards introducing world-class and future-ready skill sets into the school system, while acknowledging that the process would take time as schools are not yet fully prepared.
Yhome was speaking at the launch of the School Quality Assessment Pilot programme covering 114 government schools in Kohima, along with an induction training programme for school heads and monitoring officers. The programme was organised by Mission SOAR, a flagship initiative of the School Education department, in partnership with Elevate Foundation, at the Capital Convention Centre, Kohima, on Thursday.
Yhome said one of the department's key mandates was to ensure compliance with the requirement for states to establish a school standards authority to monitor and assess schools.
He said school standards were traditionally measured largely through matriculation and higher secondary examination results.
However, under the new parameters, school quality would be assessed across multiple domains rather than solely on examination performance, with the domains subject to regular evaluation.
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“We hope to introduce a lot of world-class global and future-ready skill sets into the school systems, but it takes time because in the first place our schools are not prepared,” he said.
Yhome acknowledged that teachers may also need time and training to adapt to new teaching materials and approaches.
He said the department would soon roll out several significant initiatives and would accelerate the curriculum process, particularly in core subjects such as mathematics, science and English.
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He said the department would incorporate elements of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) into the curriculum, adding that schools would increasingly be expected to meet prescribed standards.
“Either they comply, perform or perish; that will be the new norm,” he said.
On teacher development, Yhome said the department had established a School Leadership Academy and would make training a prerequisite for teachers seeking promotion.
“Those who do not attend the promotion academy will not be eligible for promotion,” he said, adding that several regulatory mechanisms would be introduced as part of the standardisation process.
Similar regulatory measures would also be extended to private schools, he said.
The advisor clarified that the measures were not intended as punitive actions but were aimed at standardising the state's school education system.
He further said the competitive environment within schools needed to be assessed, while indicating that the department would soon define the permissible number of students in a classroom.
“We understand that many of our schools are running with excess students in the classroom,” he said.
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