Nagaland records more than 60 percent untrained teachers

Dimapur, March 11 : The North East Council (NEC) in its sectoral summit on education expressed serious concern regarding the training of untrained teachers in North East India. A huge backlog of teachers (more than 50% in the North East) appointed over the last several years have remained untrained for a long time. In the case of Nagaland, more than 60% of in-service teachers are yet to be trained; as on January 2008, out of 12,101 elementary and primary teachers in Nagaland, 7,681 were untrained.
“This is a matter of serious concern as the issue is directly linked to quality education to our children. Though various steps have been initiated over the years for the training of the untrained teachers, the issue has not received the desired momentum. There appears to be lack of proper/coherent policy in this regard and, therefore, various initiatives taken so far for the training of untrained teachers have largely remained unsuccessful,” Dr. T Iralu, Regional Director of IGNOU Kohima Regional Centre stated.
Seminar on Training of Untrained Teachers on March 13Thus, in order to discuss various issues and policy options for the successful training of untrained teachers through sharing of experiences across the whole of North East India, IGNOU Kohima Regional Centre, in collaboration with SCERT Kohima, is organising a one day Regional Seminar on ‘Training of Untrained Teachers in North East India: Issues and Challenges’ in Kohima. The Seminar is being sponsored by the Educational Development of the North East Region Unit (EDNERU), IGNOU, New Delhi. It will involve the participation of concerned officials from all the states of North East India (including Sikkim) and will include policymakers, educationists, policy implementation agencies such as SSA, DIET, SCERT, Teachers Training Colleges as well as Education Departments dealing with the training of untrained teachers.
Kateekal Sankaranarayanan, Governor of Nagaland, will be the chief guest at the proposed Regional Seminar to be held on March 13, 2009. Director of School of Education, IGNOU, New Delhi, will also attend the Seminar and present a keynote address on the issue. There will be paper presentations from each of the North Eastern States giving status report of the teachers’ training in their respective states. Regional Directors of IGNOU, North Eastern states, will also share their experiences in dealing with the teachers’ training programs through IGNOU.
The Regional Seminar will be held at the ATI auditorium (and not at the Zonal Council Hall as informed earlier). It will start at 10 am and conclude at 6 pm. The inauguration of the Seminar by the Governor is scheduled from 11 am to 12 noon.