Govt. Schools – Best Option For Employees And Worst Option For Students!

Few months back I was privileged to attend the marriage ceremony of one of my former students whom I met after a long gap of 15 years. While inviting for the marriage she made an unusual request, “Sir, please don’t tell my husband that I studied in a Govt. school”. Even though momentarily I felt uneasy with her caution, I came in terms with the reality and fulfilled her request. A teacher being invited with such a pre condition may appear odd to you; but my students always express their thoughts frankly to me and it was with that sense of friendliness she cautioned me in advance. As the situation was not appropriate to tell her the importance of being frank with one’s life partner, I have switched over the conversation to enquiries about her higher education and profession. Even now I do not like to discuss about the personal affairs of a husband and wife here; rather I would like to focus your attention to the attitude of our society towards public institutions.

My former student described in the above incident is professionally well qualified and is serving as an officer in the Govt. of Nagaland. Why did she shy away from disclosing a fact that she had had a part of her schooling from a school that is managed by the same Govt. machinery of which she is a part now? She is not alone in this category of people! I still have contacts with many of my former students and I am saddened to say that most of their Social Network profiles have NO mention of them having had their schooling from a Govt. school. They preferred to mention the names of the private schools they attended before joining the Govt. school and the colleges they attended after passing out from the Govt. school. The poor Govt. school that catered their needs for two years at a crucial stage has now become untouchable for them!

If we go through the user profiles of Nagaland’s youth in the social networks, we could easily notice that many of the users have mentioned the names of Govt. Institutions of Higher Education from Nagaland and other states.  So, we cannot say that people have no regard for Govt. Institutions; they only have reservations about Govt. Schools. There is another important aspect to mention here. People are proudly flashing ‘Department of School Education, Govt. of Nagaland’ as their status of work in the social networks, but are shying away from admitting that they have studied in a Govt. school. It seems that Govt. schools are the best option for employees and the worst option for students.

I am not blaming people for their negative attitude towards the Govt. schools; rather I consider this like a pain in our body. We know pain itself is not a disease but an indication of presence of a disease. We must admit that the state of affairs in the Govt. schools is not so encouraging and the system needs to be revamped. Now a days the recruitment of teachers and other posts are mostly done through competitive exams and we are in a position to tap the most talented youths to the department. All we need to do is channelize their talents constructively and protect them from getting infected by the common diseases prevailing in the Govt. sector. I hope the Education department which is reigned by officers who were basically teachers would serve as a role model to the other departments and the coming generation would proudly say that they are the products of Govt. schools.