In the second week of January 2010 I received my govt. order from the school education department permitting me or rather deputing me to go for a one year B.Ed training course at the NCTE (Nagaland College of Teacher Education), Kohima. To be frank enough, I was neither excited nor uninterested about this B.Ed course which is now a must for all serving as well as intending teachers. However, I was quite thrilled at the thought of becoming a student all over again. This was so because it had been more than 7 years since I completed my post-graduation from Delhi University in the year 2002.
Our classes started on 1st February and about 2 weeks after the start of our classes, an induction program was held where the lecturers serving in the college as well as all the 104 trainees were made to introduce themselves. On this induction day, I was made to speak for some few minutes on the topic ‘My first impression of the NCTE’. Another trainee, Mrs. Tiamenla, also spoke on this same topic on our induction day. A few days after the induction day, a sort of an election was held in the college to elect the representatives who would be the spokespersons for the trainees during the one-year training course. In this way, the posts of General-Secretary (GS), Class Representatives (CRs), Literary Secretary, Sports Secretary and a few other posts were filled up. On this day, I was asked to take up the charge of Class Representative (CR) for the year and I humbly accepted.
The next big event of the year was the annual sports week for the trainees. For this sports week, I along with our General Secretary Hokheto Yepthomi and our Sports Secretary Kekhriesetuo Ziephrü roamed all over Kohima in search for an available venue where we could conduct our sports week. We started the search from GHSS, Kohima followed by G. Rio school, DBS, Seikhazou, Assam Rifles ground, LFS and finally Science College, Jotsoma. It was at Science College, Jotsoma that things worked out well and lucky for us and it was here where we would finally play out our games. At all the other venues things could not work out in our favor as the venues were either already booked and occupied or were not meant to be used by outsiders. The sports week played at Jotsoma turned out to be an unforgettable experience for many of the trainees. This was so because many of them had not had the opportunity and time to be a part of such a tournament for many years. I also thoroughly enjoyed by participating in some few games which I had not been able to play for a very long time. I could not be a part of as many games as I had wanted because, being the class representative, I was entrusted with the responsibility of taking the attendance of the trainees twice a day during this sports week.
After the successful completion of our sports week, the next big event that shook our world was the annual picnic which was decided to be held at the premises of the SBS (Shalom Bible Seminary) at Secü. The department of school education was gracious enough to provide us with two luxury buses for this picnic program and we returned home from SBS with fond memories never to be forgotten for the rest of our lives. This picnic was held somewhere in the first week of March and right after this we celebrated International Woman’s Day at our college with a resource person from the NBCC as the speaker.
After this came the most pivotal phase of the whole B.Ed training course – the Micro-Teaching Phase. Attendance, it was announced, was most compulsory during this one week phase. For most of the trainees (including myself), however, the free tea and refreshments provided by the college during this micro-teaching phase were the most enriching and appreciated. After the Micro-Teaching, the focus completely shifted to the preparation of the lesson plans for the forthcoming teaching practice session in the schools. It was during this lesson planning season that the veils were finally lifted off the faces of our lecturers. We came to know every side of our lecturers’ characters. It was during this time that the trainees experienced all the human emotions that we could think of – laughter, fun, tears, smiles, excitement, frustration, anger, inspiration, determination, courage, craftiness etc. We were to plan 20 lesson plans for this first phase of practice teaching and we were to get these 20 lesson plans approved by our concerned lecturers. And it turned out that getting the approval of our lecturers on our lesson plans was much more difficult and tedious than planning the lessons or teaching the lessons. This was so because all the lecturers seemed to have their own ways, mindset and strategy of viewing and accepting a lesson plan.
However, one thing that worked to our favor during this lesson planning season was that due to the tight schedules of the college and also the lecturers, this first practice teaching phase was finally decided to be held from the second week of July, This meant that the trainees could relax a little and easily plan their lessons during the 20 days summer break. However, this 20 days summer break was also not free of distractions because it was the FIFA world cup season and many of the trainees including myself had a tough time adjusting their schedules between planning the lessons and watching the matches. Here, it is worthy to mention that our first phase of practice teaching started on the same morning Spain defeated Netherlands in South Africa to lift the 2010 FIFA world cup.
For this first phase of practice teaching the trainees were allocated different schools within Kohima town itself. Some of these schools were Baptist High, DBS, Chandmari Higher Secondary School, Charity School, Seikhazou GHS, Mount Sinai, Mount Hermon, Mount Carmel and also a few government schools. I was sent to the Chandmari Higher Secondary school along with ten other trainees. This first phase of practice teaching spanned two whole weeks. After the completion of our first phase practice teaching, we had our normal classes for about two weeks. After this, the second phase of practice teaching started by mid-August and this time the trainees were sent to the neighboring villages. Some of the villages where this second phase of practice teaching was conducted were Jotsoma, Khuzama, Viswema, Jakhama, Kigwema and Ciedema. Besides the schools in these villages, some government schools within Kohima town were also utilized this time also and those trainees who were allocated schools within Kohima town itself were considered the lucky ones as most of the trainees did not wish to travel to the villages for their practice teaching. For those trainees who were allocated to villages like Khuzama, Viswema and Jakhama, accommodations for about two weeks had to be arranged as these villages were situated a little far from Kohima town and traveling daily to these villages from Kohima would have been quite troublesome.
For myself, I was allocated the government high school at Kigwema village along with 8 other trainees. And I thoroughly had a great time traveling to this village everyday for ten days. Besides the teaching at this school, I also thoroughly enjoyed interacting with the teachers and the villagers as I could converse with them in my own Angami dialect and as I normally do not get the chance to travel to these southern Angami villages. All in all, it turned out to be an enriching and unforgettable experience. After the second practice teaching, we were back to our college to resume our classes. And we were aware that a viva-voice interview also lay in wait for us. And we came to learn that this interview would be held at the end of September. After the conduct of this interview, classes were resumed to complete the uncovered portions of the sallybus. In the first and second weeks of November, an internal exam was held after which feedbacks were given to the trainees as per their performances in this exam.
And finally, the university exam for award of the B.Ed degree to the trainees was held in the month of December. On the last day of the exam, a farewell program was held in the college premise itself where all the trainees and the faculty shared quality time together for the last time. On this farewell day, a pre-Christmas program was also held followed by gift exchange and then a grand feast.
During the course of the year, a literary committee was also formed with the purpose to bring out an annual college magazine. Many trainees and some of the lecturers contributed articles for this annual magazine and the magazine was finally released by the NCTE Principal on the farewell day. During the summer time the trainees were also taken down to the NU campus in Medziphema and also to the animal farms in Jharnapani situated on the Kohima-Dimapur highway. There the trainees were made to observe the work being done by the government and also given the opportunity to interact with the resource persons. Later the trainees were made to write their reports on these activities and experiences. Besides these, a couple of seminars were also held in the college during the course of the year through which the trainees were enlightened on some issues which a teacher should be aware of. Some of these seminars were on the followings:
1) RTI (Right to Information)
2) RTE (Right to Education)
3) AIDS and HIV
4) Risks and Dangers in usage of Tobacco products
5) Issues concerning the environment.
Now, after writing so much about the activities and experiences during the course of the training session, I feel that this write-up would be incomplete if I don’t write something about the lecturers of the NCTE also. This is so because the lecturers were the driving force and our guides throughout. All the lecturers were well-qualified, well-equipped and well-trained to deal with the enormous task of training teachers all coming from different schools and backgrounds. Many of the lecturers also had experience on their sides as they had been in the profession for many years. Besides, all the lecturers had their own unique attributes and ways of teaching and lecturing and it was quite an experience for the trainees to deal with them on a personal level.
However, if the lecturers of NCTE were unique, well-qualified, well-trained and well-equipped, the B.Ed trainees of NCTE 2010 batch also did not lack behind in terms of ideas, giving comments and responding to the demands of the course and the lecturers in their own ways. Some of the trainees were specially equipped in giving comments and names and titles (sobriquets). The result of all these was that, as the year and the course progressed, most of the lecturers came to have a title or sobriquet given by the trainees.
First, let us begin with the Principal Mr. Punyü. Whenever we (the trainees) came across him, he would either be going somewhere or would be coming from somewhere and we hardly found him sitting in his room. Therefore, the trainees gave him the title ‘man always in a hurry’.
Then comes Mrs. Alemla. She was a perfectionist to the core. She had an eagle’s eyes and there was no chance of her overlooking or failing to detect any of our failings-be it in the lesson plans or in any other areas. There were chances when the other lecturers might fail to detect some of the failings on the part of the trainees. But with madam Alemla, that was not possible. This was why she was feared, dreaded and respected the most. For this, the trainees honored her with the title ‘AK 47’.
Next, we had our man from Jotsoma – Mr. Khrieneilie Nagi. He came from a very solid background and was a complete family man. But he seemed to be still very young at heart. His classes were always full of humor, laughter, excitement and thought-provoking comments, jokes and tales. If there was any lecturer who knew how to capture the imagination, attention and interest of the trainees, it was certainly Mr. K. Nagi. Psychology was what he taught us but we learnt much more than psychology in his classes. The NCTE trainees of 2010 batch gave him the title ‘the most happily married bachelor’ because, despite being already a family man, he was still very young at heart.
Then we had our charming lady from Kidima village – Miss Asale. She was given the title ‘lady with the register’ because she was always after our attendance. Even at times and at places where we thought our attendance would not be taken, Miss Asale would appear out of nowhere with our attendance register. Thus, she was the one who assured the regular presence of the trainees in the college.
Then we had our guy from Zunheboto – Sir. Hekishe. We called him ‘the baby-faced teacher’ because a smile was always found on his face no matter how hectic the schedules of the college might have been and no matter how charged up the emotions in the college might have been. Sir. Hekishe was certainly a man who lived by the motto ‘All is well’ (the motto of the Hindi movie ‘Three Idiots’).
Then came our lady from my very own L. Khel, Kohima Village. Her name was Neizekhonuo and we called her ‘loud speaker’ because her tone and volume could not be adjusted and only the front benchers could hear her.
Next we had Madam Bendangla and we called her Mrs. Phonetics because her phonetics classes taught us many things we never knew about our tongues. We also had another English teacher named Apukheno and the trainees gave her the title ‘Mother-tongue’. She was probably given this title because her English was always backed up by her Southern Angami accent.
Besides the above mentioned lecturers we also had a few others, but they were probably not impressive enough to be given titles by the trainees. All in all, all the trainees who underwent the B.Ed training course at the NCTE in the year 2010 learnt many things and left the college well-equipped to deliver in the enormous task of serving our land and people as shapers of our children’s destiny.
Lastly, let me conclude by mentioning that this article is written without any malice towards any individual, institution or profession. Rather this has been written in fond remembrance of a wonderful and memorable year spent and the many things learnt at the NCTE in the year 2010.
