Renponi Kithan
Dimapur
As an aggrieved teacher who had to participate in the First and Second phase of NSSATA Agitation on account of non-payment of salary for 6 months, coming back to class now after missing nearly a month, inclusive of Durga Puja Holidays etc, my heart is heavy, mind busy and I am totally trapped in the process of imparting the best knowledge to the students as deserved by them.
But unfortunately, although I am able to complete the Syllabus as required, yet, a sense of dissatisfaction lies within my soul since fast track completion of the syllabus is not sufficient enough for a true teacher to declare 100% satisfaction.
To the Government who pays my salary regularly or irregularly, I can submit my performance record as satisfactory but to the King in Heaven above, I cannot truthfully justify that I did my duty to the fullest. Now, coming to that, please do not limit your judgment to the fact that Teachers' agitation alone is the cause of my grievances.
We received textbooks late - only in the last week of April. Before we received it, we tried arranging old books and taught with it but since we could not arrange for all the students, it did not serve the desired purpose. So, classes started full swing albeit with textbooks on the desk only by May. Certain subject textbooks having as many as 23 lessons were never received by the students even till today.
With summer vacation for a month, we hardly had 5 months to do justice for the students. But tell me, how can any teacher impart quality education without textbooks and salary for months delayed altogether? How can the students learn this way when everything has to be dumped on them within a limited period of time? We are talking about Education and the process of learning; not food that one can digest even if chewed in hurry. I bear a guilty conscience for wasting their academic year like this. But this blame and responsibility is collective. As a teacher and a mother, I feel the greatest pain for the students from Eastern Nagaland who come out from their villages leaving behind their childhood and their families to work as helpers in people's house with a dream to atleast receive education but end up in the vicious cycle of such rotten and rejected quality of Education. We as Elders, as Citizens and most importantly as fellow human beings are grievously punishing them for no fault of theirs and destroying a generation which will only be a by-product of such a rotten system, should we so remain mere silent spectators indifferent to this issue just because our children study in expensive private schools and not Govt schools. This problem is not the problem of mere SSA or RMSA teachers but is inclusive of all the teachers whose schools received textbooks late in April only. Just because they are not writing or are getting paid regularly does not mean they will deny this fact. I am sure any sincere teacher will agree to this fact that cries out the injustice served to the Government School students.
This academic year is ending but we still have 2017 to welcome. I humbly request the Government and all the student bodies to kindly check and deliver a system of Education where such undue injustice and harassment does not occur in future. Please do come and check teachers keeping proxies, Midday Meals and teachers' quality of teaching also. Sadly, numerous announcements and press releases on such issues were read in the Newspapers many a time but the real problem at the grass root level needs to be seen and felt to understand the effects on the innocent students who are the end-receivers of such issues that plague the education system.
A nation may delay infrastructural development but Human Resource Development should not be delayed and compromised. Neglecting the students' academic life will bring disaster for the State in future. SSA and RMSA teachers are now debt-ridden teachers, not just to shop keepers but also our tithes which have piled up! "Modern slaves are not bound in chains but in debts" is how a famous saying goes and as such the affected teachers can be accurately described as "modern slaves" forcefully given birth to by the Govt due to its apathy.
Teachers' irregular salary is not just an issue of empty sugar and salt containers at the homes of the affected teachers but is a grave issue of the defective quality of the education system in our State which needs to be seriously checked. The entire system is in need of an overhaul with corrective measures formulated and implemented for the future of the children and the welfare of the Society as a whole. Kuknalim!
