Students threaten to march from Longleng village to Kohima
EMN
Dimapur, February 23
As with the endless sage of Nagaland’s disgraced Education department, another one joins the line of institutions that have pathetic tales. A school in Longleng district is barely running: it reportedly has no headmaster, assistant headmaster, graduate teachers and teachers for science and mathematics. The Bura Namsang Students’ Union has threatened to march all the way from Longleng to the education department’s directorate in Kohima if a set of demands they have floated goes unfulfilled.
The Bura Namsang Students’ Union in Longleng district have demanded immediate deployment of head master and graduate teachers for the government high school of Bura Namsang village. The union issued a press release on Tuesday stating that was no headmaster, assistant headmaster, or graduate teachers in the school.
The irate union explained: “Teachers in Nagaland are back to their respective schools in resuming their duties with the academic 2016 begin in Nagaland. But the students in Bura Namsang village are in dilemma to get admission into Govt. High school since they see a same situation obvious to undergo again with the existing position as there is no headmaster, assistant headmaster and graduate teachers at GHS.”
Calling the school an institution “neglected by the department,” the organization said that “normally” a government high school should have at least 16 teaching staffers “but there are only five teachers as of now as the session of the academic 2015 closed without having proper classes due to an abnormally shortest of teachers and in the absence of headmaster and assistant headmaster.”
The union said “There were seven enrolments in class-10 in academic 2015 who were allowed to fill-in the forms voluntarily for 2016 HSLC examination, of which four of them turned out in filling the forms for exams and at last only two appeared. Such case may be the rarest and record in Nagaland.”
Further, as if the fact that there was person appointed to head the school, the institution is also run being “without having even a single science teacher for the past many years so a teacher who was appointed for mathematics has to be struggling to touch both mathematics and science for whole classes.”
It was informed that the village’s council used to ‘rear’ a private teacher to help the students but they could not continue due to funds constraints to pay private teachers every year.
“Six subjects are mandatorily taking in other government schools but this system has not yet introduced in GHS Bura Namsang. To take these additional subjects or any of the subjects a qualified teacher in relevant subject are to be deployed. But there is none,” the union stated.
“The shortage of teachers and none availability of teachers in a class makes children rather to think worthwhile to attend the school makes attendance a waste of time. The concerned department has aware all the grievances faced by the students in far-flung areas and yet they committed the same. What should the government think to provide instead to the children if they are not provided free education? What if all children of poor become drop out? Enough is enough. Don’t let an innocent students suffer.”
It was also informed that some schools upgraded under the RMSA program had deployed assistant headmasters and recruited secondary teachers “whereas this particular school to be looked by the state education department is neglected.”
Taking note of the peculiar situation of school, the Bura Namsang Students’ Union has demanded from the Education department immediate redeployment of a headmaster and assistant headmaster as well as graduate teachers especially for mathematics and science “and qualified teacher for additional subject with comparative ratio.”
The department failing to comply with the demand would invite the Union “along with GHS students” to launch agitations in the form of a “historic march from village to directorate of School Education, Kohima (stretches 302 km approx. via mokokchung) to agitate for non fulfilling a demand. Our endurance will bear up to a dateline, beyond is intolerable.”
While demanding for redeployment of teachers to the concerned department, the Union also calls on the existing teachers of GHS and primary teachers to come to the posting place and resume their duties.
President of the union Nganchong Phom, and its general secretary, Shahyong Phom, appended the press release.
