Moa Jamir
The latest 2021 “State of the Education Report (SOER) for India: ‘No Teacher, No Class’” launched by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) on October 5 has highlighted both positive and negatives findings on Nagaland.
On the positive side, Nagaland scored well in the context of single-teacher schools with just 25 out of 2,752 schools (1%) and all were located in rural areas. Again, schools with vacancies were just 2% of the total, against the national average of 19%, while teacher requirement was put at 413 and Nagaland was designated ‘very good’ by the UNESCO on these parameters.
In terms of ‘teacher working conditions,’ measuring the availability of basic amenities at schools, Nagaland’s performance was more or less comparable with most of its peers, though below the national average in most parameters.
The initiative of the Department of School Education by distributing learning materials on pen drives at a nominal charge to interested parents during the COVID-19 pandemic was also underlined by the report.
However, many negatives observations were also made regarding Nagaland in the report, particularly on the quality of teachers as well as the professional working environment.
For instance, the percentage of under qualified teachers in Nagaland from Pre-primary to secondary level was among the highest in India. It was 20.77% in pre-primary; 30% in primary; and 15.5% in upper primary level. The national averages for the three levels respectively were 7.69%, 4.56% and 3.27%.
Only in the higher secondary level, Nagaland’s percentage of 0.17% was better than the All-India average of 0.22%.
Teachers’ working conditions with regard to availability of drinking water (functional) was among the lowest in Nagaland at 59% against the national average of 91%-92% (Rural-Urban) while the availability of electricity (working) was 63% against the All-India average of (71%-91%). Only 57% of the total schools in Nagaland had ‘All classrooms in good condition,’ the report said.
In terms of ‘Professional working conditions in schools’ including the availability of library, internet, ICT laboratory, visits by the academic supervisor and so on, the State was among the lowest.
Based on the Performance Grading Index (PGI) pertaining to teacher recruitment, the report highlighted that Nagaland was among the states with the lowest scores concerning the transfer of teachers through a transparent online system and the number of head teachers or principals recruited through a merit-based selection system.
“Quality of teaching, teachers, and teachers’ education are central to delivering quality education for all. They enable education to achieve its transformative potential for individuals, communities and for overall national development,” UNESCO underscored.
However, as inferred from the above observations, Nagaland is lagging behind others in many areas, and this in turn, is detrimental to the provision of quality education as well as the learning outcomes.
According to UNESCO, the report is aimed at serving as a reference for enhancing the implementation of the New Education Policy and towards the realisation of the target 4C of the Sustainable Development Goal for Quality Education (Goal 4) aimed at substantially increasing the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries.
Nagaland has also launched its own ‘SDG Vision 2030' in August 2021 with ambitious “State-specific short, medium and long term targets with measurable indicators and strategies” to meet the SDG targets. The quality of education is an integral part of achieving various targets under the vision.
As intended, stakeholders in the State must study the report holistically to understand key aspects of the teaching profession and take forward positive aspects, while improving upon the negative observations.
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