‘Right teacher for the right job’

Artists on need to revisit art education in Nagaland

Morung Express News
Dimapur | August 23

The creative arts pedagogy (visual and performing arts) in Nagaland’s education system leaves much to be desired. For so long, the arts have been viewed as supplements to the educative process and never been accorded equal status with science and mathematics and other such ‘major subjects.’

Even among educators, individual teachers are employed or assigned for the ‘major subjects.’ The qualifications required for a primary teacher is PU (TLED) and BA (B Ed) or MA (B Ed) for a high school teacher. However, in the case of fine arts—drawing and handwriting, the basic qualification would be an individual who is a teaching staff of the school.

In conversation with The Morung Express, Tunavi Achumi, Founder and Director of Artsy Naga, a Dimapur-based art curating foundation, opined that there is no systematic approach in the teaching of the fundamentals of art forms.

“Art in Nagaland has been neglected and to help boost interest amongst the society the most crucial and the most effective steps we can take is through proper art education/schooling at a young age,” Achumi said.

“Individual teachers are assigned to subjects like Math, Science, History or English, which are considered as ‘main subjects’,  but when it comes to teaching art or drawing classes, the same importance is found lacking in Nagaland,” Achumi observed.

To mitigate this, Achumi, who also has a bachelor’s degree in visual effects and animation, suggested that employing professional artists in schools and colleges would go a long way in inculcating the importance of the arts in the society.

 “That can be started by recruiting the right teacher for the right job,” he added.

Not only will it help the students boost their creativity and skills, it will also help with the employment of the experienced and full time artists who mostly depend on annual art exhibitions and occasional commissions to earn their livelihood, he added.

Similarly, Sentiyanger Longkumer, a founding member of Wandering Minds Institute of Fine Arts in Dimapur, said that while students are equipped with the latest tools and information on other subjects, “all these improvements are not seen in the field of fine arts.”

According to Sentiyanger, in most schools in Nagaland, art classes are introduced from the kindergarten level till class 8. However, without qualified teachers, even the most promising students are left to their own devices and eventually, leave the arts behind to pursue other higher education in other fields.

Providing insight on the wide spectrum and career options in Fine Arts, Sentiyanger informed that with an art degree, students can work as illustrators, graphic designers, curators, special effects technicians, and commercial artists, among others.

As such, he opined that ‘it is high time that a sense of seriousness is taken to implement fine arts as a subject in the educational system.”