Initiative comes as Nagaland expands digital and STEM education, while students report difficulties with core Science subjects
Arenjungla Kichu Mokokchung | 30 August
Google will provide its Google Workspace services free of cost to all government schools and offices under Nagaland’s Department of School Education for three years, with the arrangement extendable, the Principal Director of School Education, Shashank Pratap Singh, IAS, has confirmed to Mokokchung Times.
The provision is part of a memorandum of understanding signed between the State Government and Google on August 28, 2026.
The MoU, announced during the Tech X Gaming Expo 2026 in Kohima, was described as a collaboration to strengthen teaching and learning methodologies and equip students with digital and 21st-century skills. The partnership has been reported to involve an investment of more than Rs 10 crore.
Google Workspace is a suite of online tools for communication, file storage, document creation and collaboration.
The initiative comes as the State Government seeks to strengthen digital and STEM preparedness in government schools. Education Advisor Kekhrielhoulie Yhome had earlier said the proposed Google partnership was aimed at strengthening digital and STEM preparedness in government schools.
Nagaland already has relatively wide access to computer facilities in schools, although internet connectivity remains lower. The latest UDISE+ 2025–26 data shows that 93.4 percent of schools in the State have computer facilities, while 61.2 percent have internet connectivity.
At the same time, the latest PARAKH assessment showed differences in student performance across subjects. Grade 9 students in Nagaland performed above the national average in Language but below the national average in Mathematics, Science and Social Science. PARAKH, launched as part of NEP 2020, is the national assessment system under India’s Ministry of Education that assesses what students are actually learning, rather than simply whether they passed an exam.
The full name is Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development.
The concerns also emerge in conversations with higher-secondary Science students. Students in Classes 11 and 12 who spoke to MT described Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics as difficult subjects, with some also describing them as boring. Chemistry was particularly cited as difficult. Many of the students spoken to said they attend additional coaching classes for the core Science subjects.
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“It is not that I find the teaching bad, but it is the subject. Chemistry is boring for me,” a student at a private school in Mokokchung said, adding that she had always intended to pursue Biology in college and therefore paid more attention to Zoology and Botany.
“The students are interested, but because we have to finish the syllabus, we cannot spend time helping them understand like we want to because completing the syllabus becomes more important,” said a Science teacher at a private school in Mokokchung.
The teacher said students often need more time for numerical problems, conceptual explanations and individual attention, which can be difficult to provide within regular classroom time.
Taken together, the accounts suggest that access to digital infrastructure is only one part of the challenge facing the State as it seeks to strengthen digital and STEM education.
However, with the MoU not available in the public domain at the time of filing this report, it is not yet clear how the services will be deployed across government schools, whether students will receive individual accounts or which specific Workspace applications will be enabled and how Workspace will be integrated into classroom teaching.
