A brief profile of Nagaland Board of School Education

Established under Act No.4 of the Nagaland State Legislative Assembly 1973 on the 15th November 1973, the Nagaland Board of School Education (NBSE) started functioning from the 1st October 1974 covering the whole of Nagaland within its ambit. As empowered by the Act, the Board prescribes, regulate, supervise and develop the educational system of the state up to higher secondary level.

The NBSE prescribe courses of instruction up to higher secondary level and vocational education. It conducts and supervises the conduct of:

1. HSSLC Examination
2. Class XI Promotion Examination
3. HSLC Examination
4. HSLC Compartmental Examination
5. Class IX Final Examination
6. Class VIII Examination
7. Entrance Examination for technical courses such as Nagaland State Entrance Examination (NSEE) and any other examination directed by the Government.

The Board prepares the curriculum & syllabus and prescribes textbooks for secondary and higher secondary and conducts the examinations. It organizes teachers development programmes and conducts workshops, seminars and training of teachers on matters related to academic and examination issues. For the past 3 years, the Board have been carrying out in–service teachers training under RMSA programme.

It lays down conditions for registration and recognition of schools and constantly monitors the academic standards of its registered schools. The Board considers the collection, evaluation of statistics and analysis of results a very important function and so publishes regularly the analysis report. Doing so, it tries to study and examine the problems in the field of education for onward submission to the Government.

NBSE History Timeline

Composition

The Board is composed of ex-officio members, members nominated by the Government and co-opted members.

There is a full time Chairman who is the chief executive of the office. The different sections of the office are examination, academic, administration, computer and accounts.

Jurisdiction

The jurisdiction of the Board is the State of Nagaland.

Objectives

The Nagaland Board of School Education is basically instituted to achieve certain objectives such as:

1. To prescribe course of instruction for Primary, upto Higher Secondary and Vocational School.
2. To conduct and supervise examinations based on such course or to cause to conduct and supervise such examinations.
3. To admit to its examinations, on conditions that may be prescribed by regulations, candidates who have pursued the prescribed courses of instruction and also to take such disciplinary action against candidates as may be prescribed by regulations.
4. To demand and receive such fees as may be prescribed by regulation.
5. To publish the result of its examinations.
6. To demand and receive such fees as may be prescribed by regulation.
7. To institute and award scholarships and prizes.
8. To prepare, publish and select text books and supplementary books or to cause to prepare, publish and select such books.
9. To lay down conditions of recognition of high schools, higher secondary schools and other schools preparing candidates for high school course, higher secondary course and other courses prescribed by the Board.
10. To recognise High Schools and Secondary Schools and Vocational schools and to withdraw such recognition."
11. To take such disciplinary action as it thinks fit against institutions as prescribed by regulations.
12. To identify problems in the field of school education and to take remedial measures.
13. To advise Government on physical, moral and social welfare of students in recognised institutions and to prescribe conditions for their residence and discipline.
14. To prescribe necessary qualifications of teachers in recognized schools.
15. To organise seminars and workshops for “in-service Teachers”.
16. To receive grants from Government and donations from private individuals or associations for specific or general purposes.
17. To call for reports from the Director of School Education on the conditions of recognised institutions or of institutions applying for recognitions.
18. To advise Government on re-organisation and development of school education.
19. To advise Government relating to any matter within the provisions of this Act on which the Government may consult the Board.
20. To appoint officers and other employees of the Board, and to prescribe by regulation, the terms and conditions of their service;
21. To institute by regulations for the benefit of its officers and other employees such pension, gratuity and provident fund as it may deem fit in such manner and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed by regulations.
22. To delegate any of its powers to any Committee constituted under this Act.
23. To administer the Nagaland Board of School Education Fund.
24. To receive, purchase and hold any property movable or immovable, which may become vested in it, and to dispose of all or any of the property, movable or immovable belonging to it and also do all other acts incidental or appertaining thereto. and
25. To do all such acts and things as may be necessary to carry out the purpose of this Act.

Examinations

The examinations conducted by the Board can be categorized into two different scheme:

1. School Based Examination ─ Classes IX & XI
2. Public Examination ─ HSSLC & HSLC

1. School Based Examinations:

In school based Board examination, the Board sets the question papers and the confidential packets are delivered at the district headquarters by the Board except Kohima district and the Heads of Institutions collect it from the district headquarter. Evaluation of answer scripts is done by the subject teachers of the respective schools and the results are prepared as per the criteria set by the Board. The results are declared only after it is approved by the Board. All registered institutions are centres of examination.

2. Public Examinations:

In public examination, the Board sets question papers, evaluates the answer scripts and declares the results. The Board creates the centres of examination all over the State depending on the number of enrolment and schools, administrative convenience and availability of Government Treasury or Nationalized Banks and Postal Services. The Deputy Commissioner or the local Sub-divisional Administration Officer is the Chairman of the local examination Committee for the centres.

Evaluation Process

In order to maintain secrecy and accuracy in evaluation process, the Board introduced use of Optical Mark Reader (OMR) and Bar Code for the entry of Roll numbers in the front cover of the answer scripts with effect from HSLC & HSSLC Examinations 2016.

The Software(s) and hardware(s) used for Processing the answerscripts are as follows: Fire-eye scanner, extract Pro+, normal scanner, SQL server and Computers.

Academic

The following subjects are taught at Secondary and Higher Secondary level:

Major Activities undertaken by the NBSE

Vocational Education:

Besides skilled based subjects, the Board has introduced vocational courses prescribed by National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF). The objective of NSQF is to provide access to qualifications and assist students to move easily and readily between different education and training sectors and between those sectors and the labour market.

Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) course was introduced in 2014 academic session and Travel & Tourism (TT) in 2015.

Retail and Health Care Services will be introduced from 2017 academic session.

Financial Literacy Programme:

The Board took an initiative to promote Financial Management Courses in collaboration with the National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) at higher secondary level in 2014.

The course consists of 4(four) papers such as Financial Markets, Mutual Funds, Capital Markets and Derivative Markets.

The Board took an initiative to promote Financial Management Courses in collaboration with the National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) at higher secondary level in 2014.

The course consists of 4(four) papers such as Financial Markets, Mutual Funds, Capital Markets and Derivative Markets.

The Board also felt the need to create awareness and inculcate knowledge about financial literacy to the students at young age. The objective is to help the students acquire necessary life skills and prepare them with the basics of financial management and discipline. In this regard, Financial Literacy was introduced in 2016 in collaboration with the National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) on a pilot basis in 60 selected schools of Kohima, Mokokchung and Dimapur. The curriculum comprises of 25 periods of 45 minutes each. The textbook materials are developed by NSE and the teachers are trained by the National Stock Exchange of India Limited. An offline examination is conducted at the end of the academic session. A joint certificate by the NBSE and NSE is issued to students and teachers on various categories.

Life Skill Education (Classes IX to XII):

The textbook for Life Skills Education has been designed and developed as per the syllabus for the two internally assessed subjects i.e. Work & Art Education and Physical & Health Education for the first time and introduced in Class IX and Class XI from the academic session 2016.

The textbooks for secondary and higher secondary levels focuses on the importance of health and related problems and healthy living, to instill the dignity of labour, to open up vistas of artistic expression in the fields of music, fine arts, dance and other disciplines, topics on disaster management, civic life, clean election, care for public property, national integration and career guidance are also included in the book to help students to acquire values of life to mould their personalities and help acquire the right attitude to become responsible in life.

Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE)

The Board introduced the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) scheme at the secondary stage in all its registered schools in the year 2007. CCE refers to a system of evaluation that covers all aspects of students’ development. The term “continuous” refers to evaluation of all aspects of students’ growth and development that covers the teaching – learning process of the entire academic session. The second term “comprehensive” means the assessment cover both the scholastic and the co-scholastic aspects of students’ growth and development.

The CCE scheme was revised and introduced in 2015 to facilitate holistic assessment of the child with the techniques and tools of evaluation. A report card on CCE was also developed by the Board and introduced in 2016 to record the overall student’s performance of the students. The students are assessed in the following aspects by the teachers on Co-scholastic Areas:

1. Attitudes and values
2. Life Skills
3. Literary & Creative
4. Scientific
5. Aesthetic & Performing Arts
6. Clubs
7. Health & Physical aspects

Grading

The Board has adopted the Absolute and Relative Grading to assess the performance of its students where the marks are converted into grades since HSLC Examination 2009.

The NBSE has been making efforts in every aspect to provide quality education and efficient method to assess the accurate learning outcome. Bar coding of the answer scripts and OMR award sheet was introduced w.e.f. HSLC & HSSLC Examinations 2016 and 2017 respectively in order to maintain secrecy and minimize error in result making.

The Board in its endeavour for the last 42 years has its ups and downs, sweet and bitter experiences, overcoming various challenges has now stand at par with the rest of the country yet still envisages attaining higher degree of excellence and will remain true to its motto ‘Labour and Honour’.