FACES BEHIND NECTAR

In this segment, we feature NECTAR officials in different capacities to enable readers to learn
more about the people and intent behind the various initiatives and interventions of the project,
as well as the strides made so far.

In the current issue, we engage with officials from the State Council of Educational Research and
Training (SCERT).

1. Can you share with us the various initiatives and interventions implemented by the
   collaboration of SCERT and NECTAR?
   
   Ans : SCERT has been collaborating with NECTAR in the areas of training, developing Professional Learning Communities, Examination Reforms, building the capacity of school leaders, school assessment, project review, revision of teachers’ competency framework, curriculum and planning, school leader competency framework, education manager competency framework, logical approach framework, selection of agencies and consortium etc. SCERT also participates in Project Steering Committee meetings.
   
2. Do you see any value addition from NECTAR towards capacity-building programmes? Please mention it in a few lines.
   
   Ans : Performance Incentive Grants, Professional Learning Communities, School Leadership Development Programme (SLDP), Teach Tool, and Examination Reforms. All these activities are contributing towards value addition.
   
3. Can you mention one initiative of NECTAR that you appreciate and one where you would want to make recommendations for improvement?
   
   Ans : One initiative that I appreciate is the SLDP training, and the area that requires improvement is the building of Lighthouse School Complexes; this needs urgent attention.
   
4. What is your dream for school education in Nagaland? How do you envision NECTAR’s role in fulfilling that vision?
   
   Ans : More enrolment in government schools, facilities for holistic development of all children, teachers should receive timely training, games and sports and other cocurricular activities should be enhanced, assessment should be holistic and higher order thinking skills should be promoted to assess the creativity of pupils, schools should have healthy relations with the community, and quality education along with building a good moral life should be ensured with good annual results. NECTAR can contribute a lot towards fulfilling all the above dreams. Rote learning will deprive the students of real education, and in such a situation, there will be no place for creativity, self-learning, and self-discovery. The overall system can produce only mechanistic robot-like beings and not creative individuals. Therefore, assessment should be continuous and comprehensive; teachers should also assess themselves based on the pupils’ responses. Presently, only summative evaluation of students is done to promote or detain the learner while ignoring the teacher’s own reflection on the student’s learning. Focusing merely on academics and summative evaluation will not yield proper results for achieving quality education; that cannot fulfil the wider educational goals which are the development of a good human being and a good citizen so that a strong and vibrant nation can be built.

---

1. How long have you been serving as a Project Coordinator for NECTAR, and what is your role?
   
   Ans: I started working on the project in 2019 when the initial research and groundwork were being done. Later on, after a break, I joined the project again as a Project Coordinator in 2022. My role is mostly related to coordination, helping out in the development of frameworks, brainstorming for different project areas, and liaising.
   
2. What are the ongoing programmes carried out with the collaboration of SCERT and NECTAR?
   
   Ans: The ongoing programmes carried out with the collaboration of SCERT and NECTAR are:
   i. Capacity-building of Education Managers and school heads under State Institute of Educational Management And Training (SIEMAT)
   ii. Developing lesson planning framework
   iii. Developing competency framework for teachers, education leaders, and school leaders
   iv. Selection of agencies for the project
   v. Teach Tool implementation
   vi. SCERT organisation manual development
   
3. In what ways is SCERT being supported and strengthened by collaborating with NECTAR?
   
   Ans: a. Capacity-building of Education Managers and school heads under SIEMAT
   b. Exam Reforms capacity-building
   c. Developing competency frameworks for teachers, Education Managers and school leaders.
   
4. Do you see any value addition from NECTAR towards capacity-building programmes? Please mention it in a few lines.
   
   Ans : Yes, there are visible value additions from NECTAR’s capacity-building programmes, such as a better classroom monitoring mechanism, the development of a feedback form for identifying areas of improvement, video documentation of case studies for Education Managers, and school leader programmes under SIEMAT.
   
5. Can you mention one initiative of NECTAR that you appreciate and one where you would want to make recommendations for improvement?
   
   Ans : One initiative of NECTAR that I truly appreciate is how this project has been able to bring the entire sister departments of School Education in Nagaland to work together under one banner. Our strength lies in our unity, and this has been witnessed in our collective success stories.
   
6. What is your dream for school education in Nagaland? How do you envision NECTAR’s role in fulfilling that vision?
   
   Ans: My dream for school education in Nagaland is to have schools that are based on equity and well-rounded education including academic and non-academic aspects, wherein the government, community, students, and teachers work together as a composite unit. Besides academics, students would be taught empathy, values, life skills, analytical skills, problem solving techniques, and critical thinking, which will prepare and equip them for life in order to live purposefully with an entrepreneurial and independent mindset and the consciousness to contribute to society.
   NECTAR has started to help fulfil this vision through various innovative practices like the Lighthouse School models, PIG schemes, and Professional Learning Communities. One small step at a time, we can all work together to achieve this vision.