The National Education Policy (2020) and subsequent monitoring and administrative policies of the Department of School Education call for efficient education management through digitization. Various interventions under the NECTAR project are designed to meet this demand, including intra-school monitoring and administrative systems. The mandate for digital administration depends on ensuring adequate infrastructure within schools and departmental establishments, which is a significant challenge where access to laptops is limited. Therefore, NECTAR is supporting their Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure needs.
Efforts are being made to build rudimentary infrastructure in the form of laptops across schools and offices to enhance the capacity of education managers for engaging in digital monitoring and governance mechanisms to fulfill their administrative duties in a streamlined fashion. To this end, laptops are being provided to all 249 Government High Schools and 55 Government Higher Secondary Schools, District Education Offices, and Sub-Divisional Education Offices under the Directorate of School Education (DoSE).
Laptops have also been issued to the SCERT, 8 DIETs under SCERT, the NBSE office, and the Department of School Education (Administrative office).
During the event held at the Directorate of School Education office on 11 September 2024, the Special Guest, Dr Kekhrielhoulie Yhome, Advisor for School Education & SCERT, handed over laptops to the schools and departments.
Avelu Ruho (NCS), Joint Secretary of DSE and Deputy Project Director of NECTAR, delivered the welcome address. She encouraged all the schools and establishments to utilize the laptops to support the maintenance of data and the effective management of schools. She also urged them to retain the laptops at the schools and establishments so that they serve their ICT needs effectively. Furthermore, she informed that the remaining schools from all districts should collect the laptops on or before 20 September 2024 at the NECTAR office, Directorate of School Education.
Thavaseelan K (IAS), Principal Director of DoSE and Project Director of NECTAR, stated that the laptops are meant for all schools and establishments under the Department of School Education. He set the context by noting that the laptops would help achieve the objectives of the NECTAR project, i.e., to enhance the governance of schools across Nagaland and improve teaching practices and the learning environment in select school complexes. He further mentioned that the Education Management Information System, among other project initiatives, will receive a boost through the enhanced digital infrastructure.
In his keynote address, Dr Kekhrielhoulie Yhome, Advisor for School Education & SCERT, stated that the first component of the NECTAR project is to improve the governance system, and the distribution of laptops is part of this initiative. He explained that the goal is to streamline the governance system by studying the administrative roles and structure of governance in the education system. He also mentioned plans to establish the Nagaland Education Service and the Nagaland Education Administrative Service.
Additionally, he highlighted that the data collected through the Teachers Attendance Monitoring System is a significant achievement that will enable the Department to understand various aspects, such as appointments and retirements, which will, in turn, aid the planning process. The Advisor emphasized the need to transition to a data-driven and data-intensive process to improve the governance system, despite the challenges.