Veroli Zhimo
Government college students in Nagaland could end up paying dearly for a lack of forward planning as well as a serious teacher shortage. Various students’ unions have been saying for a very long time now that there is a serious lack of teachers, yet the problems continue to persist across the state.
On November 16, the All Nagaland College Students' Union (ANCSU) wrote to the state’s Commissioner Secretary for Higher & Technical Education underlining two key points—the absence of principals in two major government colleges and the shortage of lecturers in institutions across the State.
It said that the absence of principals in the two colleges—Fazl Ali College in Mokokchung and Mt Tiyi College in Wokha, “directly invites chaos in the institution,” and appealed the department to immediately appoint principals. Further, noting the shortage of lecturers in institutions across the State, the ANCSU stated that many government colleges in the state are functioning perilously without lecturers in all departments.
In 2020 too, the Eastern Nagaland College Students' Union (ENCSU) underscored that the Wangkhao College, Mon which had 474 students, there was only one lecturer in the Education Department and one lecturer in Sociology Department on contractual basis, and three lecturers in English Department. Out of 17 teaching staff, there were only ten regular lecturers and seven contractual lecturers managing the institution, it had pointed out.
Similar reports about faculty shortages appear in the local newspapers every few months. And after every such report, government and department officials in particular express great concern and make worried statements while ministers and political leaders predictably call for action to hire more faculties. Occasionally, new strategies to find and hire faculty are announced. However, nothing much happens thereafter until the next time faculty shortages make the news and the cycle repeats itself.
While it is difficult to work out if issues like working conditions or weak professional development support and other factors are prompting teachers to quit or dissuading people from entering the profession, one thing is clear—the state needs to pull up its socks and make more efforts to retain and attract qualified teachers.
Education, especially at higher levels, must sustain exchange of ideas, developments in various fields of knowledge and creative activities among teachers and with students. How can one expect such learning to happen when there are not enough teachers?
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