Nagaland has launched its first school quality assessment pilot, with 114 government schools in Kohima district set to be assessed under the School Transformation through Excellence in Learning and Leadership Assessment (STELLA) framework of Mission SOAR.
The pilot was launched by MLA and Advisor for School Education, Dr Kekhrieholiie Yhome, at the Capital Convention Centre, Kohima, on Thursday, during an induction training programme for school heads and monitoring officers from the 114 schools.
STELLA is being implemented under Mission SOAR, a flagship school education reform programme of the Department of School Education, Government of Nagaland, in partnership with Elevate Foundation. Shikha Academy, Mumbai, conducted the training, covering the parameters assessed under the framework, the assessment process and the use of assessment data by schools to identify areas requiring improvement.
The framework assesses schools across various elements aligned with national school quality standards. Schools will submit information through a structured digital data-collection process, after which the system will process the information and generate algorithm-based scores. The scores will be made available to schools and state education officials through a central digital portal.
STELLA also maps its assessment elements to the national PARAKH School Quality Assessment and Assurance Framework (SQAAF), enabling the State’s assessment data to be aligned with national school quality standards without requiring a separate exercise.
“This is not a penalty to anybody. This is now the standardisation of our school systems. School standards will be measured not just through examination results, but across a much wider range of parameters that help us understand and improve the quality of our schools,” Yhome said.
The framework is designed to provide schools with more than an assessment score. Alongside each assessment, it generates school-specific recommendations identifying areas that need to be strengthened, allowing schools to prioritise their improvement efforts.
Director of Shikha Academy, Mumbai, Karishma Shanghvi, said the enthusiasm shown by the 114 school principals during the training demonstrated Nagaland’s potential to make significant progress in school education.
Director of Elevate Foundation, Kevisato Sanyü, said the pilot marked the transition of Mission SOAR’s school quality initiative from design to implementation.
“The Kohima pilot will show us where our schools stand, what they need to strengthen, and how we can build a stronger system of school quality across the state,” Sanyü said.
The pilot has two objectives: to establish baseline school quality scores for the participating schools and to test the assessment framework before its wider rollout across Nagaland.
The assessment will also help determine the readiness of schools and education functionaries to use the system, identify capacity-building requirements and highlight areas of the process that may need to be improved.
Mission SOAR is a state-wide initiative of the Department of School Education aimed at transforming public education in Nagaland through teaching innovation, capacity building and systemic reforms. It seeks to improve learning outcomes and equip students with grade-level competency, 21st-century skills and a strong sense of identity.