Rural Schools in Crisis: A Citizen’s Appeal for Educational Reform

As a concerned citizen, I feel compelled to highlight a crisis unfolding in our villages: the steady breakdown of rural education. While student bodies and public discourse often focus on identity and social issues, the deeper and more dangerous erosion is taking place in our classrooms. If left unaddressed, we risk losing entire generations of young people—not to outside threats, but to neglect within our own systems.

A Case from the Ground

In one village primary school, the situation mirrors what is happening across many rural areas:

A mathematics teacher’s post was withdrawn without replacement.

Only three teachers have been deputed to run six classes (Class A, B, and Classes 1–4).

In practice, half the classes remain unattended each period, leaving students without supervision or meaningful learning.

Parents, unable to tolerate such conditions, often migrate to towns in search of better education. This migration is not voluntary ambition—it is a forced choice. It imposes severe economic and social hardship on families and weakens village communities. In some cases, nearly half the households in a village have migrated, draining both family resources and community vitality.

Beyond the Classroom: A Cycle of Loss

The failure of schools has ripple effects:

Child relocation: Some families, unable to afford migration, send their children to stay with relatives or acquaintances in other towns. Many of these children end up as house help, dropping out of school and returning to their villages unprepared for adult life.

Lost futures: Once back, many cannot return to farming or pursue stable work. Some drift into destructive activities—petty crime, drug abuse, or even making crude weapons. For them, the chance to live with dignity has already been eroded by educational failure.

These are not isolated cases but a growing pattern of despair that touches many rural households.

Policy Gaps

Government policies often speak of ratios—30 students per teacher—and impose penalties on defaulting schools. Yet they fail to acknowledge the structural causes behind dwindling student numbers: lack of teachers, broken infrastructure, and parental desperation. A more practical solution—such as cluster-based Government Middle Schools serving groups of villages—remains largely ignored. The absence of empathy in policymaking deepens the wound.

A Clarion Call to All Stakeholders

Our student unions have long been the conscience of Naga society, raising their voices on issues of rights and protection. But the crisis in our rural schools demands more than student activism alone—it requires a united front. If the core of our society—our schools—collapses, then defending the surface will have little meaning.

This is therefore a call to the Department of School Education, student bodies, village councils, churches, and community organizations to come together and place rural education at the center of our collective agenda. Only through shared responsibility can we prevent further loss of generations to neglect.

We must urgently work toward:

Fair and transparent teacher deployment, ensuring that every rural school has the staff it needs.

Practical solutions such as cluster-based Government Middle Schools, so children from smaller villages are not left behind or forced to migrate.

Minimum standards of infrastructure, supervision, and accountability in every school, so that learning is not reduced to empty promises.

The time to act is now. Let every department, institution, and community shoulder this responsibility—because the future of our children, and of Nagaland itself, depends on it.

The Future at Stake

This is more than an education issue—it is a survival issue. Without functioning schools, we will lose not only literacy but also the values, culture, and future of our people. Protecting our classrooms is protecting our identity.

D. Kamei

A Concerned Citizen