Students of Tuensang face unique problem: 780 students and only 370 seats available in 2 higher secondary schools

By Sarah Konyak

Students in Tuensang district of Nagaland who just cleared their Class 10 exams are facing an unique problem. They do not have enough seats in the 2 government run secondary schools to pursue their Class 11 and 12. Over 780 students passed their Class 10 exams but the number of seats available in the 2 higher secondary schools are 370 only.

Tuensang has only four higher secondary schools — two are run by the government and other two are privately held.

The lack of available higher secondary schools in the district has sparked concern among parents, educators, and student organizations.

Advisor for School Education and SCERT, Dr.Kekhrie Yhome, commenting on the issue, blamed the education department for the crisis and informed that the department has already started the process to address the issue.

The department will be issuing an order to deploy two teachers today for the two government higher secondary schools in Tuensang, and the teacher who was relieved will be retained, said Yhome.

Responding to the up gradation of the schools, Yhome said it cannot immediately be done as there is a process involved and it has to come at the state level Education committee meeting. He said the district will have to forward the proposal to the department and it will be considerd on the process of “need and necessity”.

Commenting on the deplorable infrastructure of government-run schools across the state, Yhome justified that many school infrastructures were built in the 1960s and 1970s and the state did not have resources. He said the department is aware that it needs to improve many of the schools, but it has limited resources.

“Last week I was in Pungro and I have seen the state of affairs myself it is very sad. Many of our students are sitting in classrooms which were built in the 70s and it is pathetic. So, I can understand very much.

While the Chang Wedoshi Setshang (Chang Students’ Conference) had served a memorandum to the Principal Director, Directorate of School Education, Nagaland, stating that the existing two government higher secondary schools cannot accommodate qualified students due to a lack of classrooms as well as a shortage of teachers.

It also stated that 780 students have filled out the admission forms this year, whereas the intake for both the schools is only 370.

In light of the discrepancies, the conference halted the admissions process for Class 11 in those two schools on June 6, 2023, until the department provided alternative arrangements to accommodate those students who filled out the admission form.

The Deputy Commissioner of Tuensang, Lithrongla Tongpi Rutsa, along with SDO Civil Sentilong Ozukum, visited both schools on July 7 and met the concerned institutional heads and deliberated on how to go about this issue and the measures that should be taken.

The recently declared results of the Nagaland Board of School Education had a pass percentage of 70.32% for HSLC.

The government schools secured 35% and private schools a 79% pass percentage in HSLC.

This year the results saw a significant improvement as compared to the last year’s results where the government schools secured 22% and private schools a 67% pass percentage.

Also Read: NBSE Class 12 results out; pass percentage 82.62%