Communitisation of an institution of the Government means transferring the ownership to and sharing responsibility of its management with the community – It encompasses decentralization of authority, delegation of responsibility, empowerment of the community and building up a win-win relationship between the Government and the community to spur growth and development of institutions. In a communitised School, the academic, administrative and financial management of the school substantially vest with the community which acts through an elected Village Education Committee (VEC). Salaries of Government teachers are disbursed through these VECs who are empowered to control teachers in a variety of ways, including implementing the “No Work, No Pay” principle. Three months advance salaries of teachers are drawn and kept in the VEC account to be disbursed by the VEC to teachers on the first of the month. The VEC are also responsible for universal enrollment and retention of children up to the age of 14 years. The community receives funds for key purposes, such as purchase of textbooks, furniture, repair of school buildings etc. The village thus treats the school as its own, thereby contributing their best in cash, kind and labour. The Government continues to supervise, support and supplement the activities. Communitisation thus augments the limited capital resources by making available the community’s ‘social capital’ for betterment of the school and improvement of every facet of elementary education.

        Conceptualized in 2001, the communitisation programme was translated into reality through several rounds of discussions and brainstorming sessions held with the Directorate officers and field officials. Meetings were also held by the Education Department with the Finance & Treasury Department, commercial Banks and the Accountant General Office to devise the new rules and procedures as well as to modify the existing rules particularly relating to financial aspects such as drawing salary in advance, opening of Bank accounts etc. High-level meetings were also held on a number of occasions with the Department under the direction and guidance of the Chief Secretary of Nagaland. These discussions not only helped to formulate the modalities but also ensured that a collective consensus and support for the initiative evolved.

        Once conceptualized, a comprehensive programme of multi-level sustained intensive capacity building at all level was drawn up to ensure successful implementation of the programme. Training of trainers was held and several groups of resource persons were formed. These groups in turn imparted training and held role-play sessions for all VEC members at the District and Sub-divisional level through out the length and breath of the State. Finally, this pioneering concept of Communitisation of Elementary Education took off on September 2002. Initially, out of 1566 Elementary schools in 1277 villages only 205 schools in 90 villages were taken up on a pilot basis. In 2003, another 197 schools in 128 villages were taken up under this programme on a voluntary basis. Thus a total of 402 schools located in 218 villages were communitised during the period 2002 & 2003.

        The communitisation programme has been extended to all elementary schools in the rural areas of the State. Emboldened by the success of the programme in the rural areas, the Communitisation programme is now being extended to the urban areas where Ward Education Committees (WEC) have been constituted. With the coverage of the urban schools by September 2004, the entire elementary education sector in the State will come under the ambit of communitisation.

        The Communitisation programme has been gainfully dovetailed with the Sarva Shiksha Programme (SSA) and has become an ideal vehicle for its effective implementation.