Communitisation of Public Institutions and Services (Education), Nagaland

What is the Communitisation of Public Institutions and Services Act in Nagaland?

The Nagaland Communitisation of Public Institutions and Services Act, 2002 (Act No. 2 of 2002) is a state law that lets the Government of Nagaland hand over the day-to-day management of public institutions; most prominently government schools; to committees formed at village level. It received the assent of the Governor of Nagaland on 27 March 2002 and was published in the Nagaland Gazette Extraordinary dated 15 April 2002.

The Act's own preamble states its purpose: to provide for empowerment of the community and delegation of the powers and functions of the State Government to local authorities by way of participation of the community in matters connected with the management of local public utilities, public services and State Government activities connected with education, water supply, roads, forests, power, sanitation, health and other welfare and development schemes.

Education is the sector where communitisation is best known. Under it, the management of government schools passes to a village-level body: commonly called a Village Education Committee (VEC): constituted by the Village Council and Village Development Board structure that already governs a Naga village. In the health sector the same law produced Village Health Committees; the Health & Family Welfare Department dates its own communitisation process to 2002 and credits it, alongside NRHM support from 2006, with the department's subsequent gains.

The Act extends to the whole of Nagaland. Critically, Section 1(3) provides that it comes into force on such date or dates as the State Government may notify for different parts of the State and for different sectors of public services, which is why communitisation reached different districts and different sectors at different times, rather than all at once.

How does communitisation actually work?

The Act is short and its machinery sits in six operative sections.

Section 3 to Constitution of authorities. The State Government constitutes or declares an authority for a village, or for an area covering two or more villages, to exercise the powers and discharge the functions provided under the Act. The Act deliberately does not fix a single name: an authority may be called a Board, a Committee or any other nomenclature. This is the section under which a Village Education Committee comes into existence.

Section 4 to Delegation of powers and functions. The State Government or its authorities may, by notification, delegate specified powers and functions over the management and operation of public utilities and services: expressly including education: to the authority constituted under Section 3. The government may also issue directions to the committee for implementing a specific scheme or policy. Section 4(3) additionally allows the committee to undertake other social, cultural and educational activities not inconsistent with the Act, with due regard to public interest, an innovative approach and optimum use of resources.

Section 5 to Transfer of assets. Where required, and in the manner specified by the State Government, the assets relating to those services that are vested in the State Government are transferred to the committee, which then manages them under special or general orders. For a school this means the building, equipment and other assets pass into community management.

Section 6 — Officers and employees. This is the heart of communitisation. The State Government may, by special or general order, place its regular officers and employees, including teachers: under the control of the village authority to the extent specified. Four safeguards follow:

• Their conditions of service cannot be varied except in accordance with rules made by the State Government, or rules governing similar categories of staff at the commencement of the Act.
• The rules and regulations applicable to them continue to apply until repealed or amended.
• Their salaries and allowances continue to be borne by the State Government, the community controls the staff but does not pay them from its own pocket.
• The authority may engage further employees as it considers expedient and as its available fund permits, but such employees are not deemed to be State Government employees.

Section 6(6) gives the committee real teeth: subject to State Government directions, it has the power to review the appointment of any employee, including work-charged employees, who was already employed when the Act commenced but was not appointed in a regular and substantive capacity.

Section 7 to Fund. A fund is established for each authority. It includes grants made by the State Government in connection with the delegated function and any other funds raised as prescribed, and it is operated subject to State Government directions.

Section 9 to Power to inspect. An authorised State Government officer may enter and inspect any property, work in progress or institution under the control of the committee, and may call for and inspect any book or document in the committee's possession.

Who does communitisation cover, and who is not eligible?

Communitisation covers:

• Villages and village communities in Nagaland for which the State Government has issued a notification under Section 3 constituting or declaring an authority.
• Groups of villages, the Act expressly allows an authority for "an area covering two or more villages", and the 2004 amendment extended community empowerment and delegation beyond the village or an area.
• Government schools and the staff working in them, where a Section 4 notification has delegated management powers to the local committee.
• Students and parents in those villages, who are the end beneficiaries of better-managed schools.

Communitisation does not apply, and you are not eligible, if:

• You are an individual seeking a personal benefit. There is no personal grant, scholarship or cash payment under this Act. An individual cannot apply, and no form exists for one.
• You are a private school. The Act delegates the State Government's own powers over its own institutions; it does not reach privately managed schools.
• Your village has no notification under Section 3. Without a constituted or declared authority there is nothing for powers to be delegated to.
• You are a regular government teacher hoping the committee will change your service conditions. Section 6(2) forbids that except through State Government rules.

How to apply for communitisation of a village school

1. Check that your village has a notified authority. Section 3 requires a State Government notification constituting or declaring a Board or Committee for the village or the area. The District Education Officer or Sub-Divisional Education Officer for your area can confirm this.
2. Constitute the Village Education Committee through the Village Council and Village Development Board, following the composition prescribed for your area, and have it recorded.
3. Obtain the Section 4 delegation notification that specifies exactly which powers and functions over the school have been delegated. This document defines what the committee may and may not do.
4. Take charge of the transferred assets under Section 5 in the manner the State Government specifies, and maintain a record of them.
5. Open and operate the committee fund established under Section 7, into which State Government grants for the delegated function flow, and operate it subject to the government's directions.
6. Exercise supervision of staff placed under the committee's control under Section 6, keeping within the limits the Act sets on service conditions, and engage additional staff only within the fund available.
7. Route disputes through the appellate authority prescribed under Section 8 rather than through informal pressure.

The School Education Department exercises administrative control at district level through District Education Officers (DEO) and at block level through Sub-Divisional Education Officers (SDEO), so those are the offices a village committee deals with in practice.

How big is the system communitisation covers?

The School Education Department was established in 1964 and today administers primary, elementary, secondary and higher secondary education across the state. According to the department, it is responsible for the management and administration of 2,071 government schools:

The context that made communitisation urgent is worth recording. As per the 1961 Census Nagaland's literacy rate was only 14 per cent. By the 2011 Census it had risen to 80.11 per cent, above the national average.

What happens if a committee fails or oversteps?

Section 10 to Power to supersede. If the State Government forms the opinion that an authority is not competent to perform its duties, persistently defaults in performing them, or exceeds or abuses its powers, it may by an order stating the reasons declare the authority to be incompetent, in default, or to have exceeded or abused its powers, and then:

• supersede it for a period specified in the order, or
• dissolve it and order fresh constitution of the authority, or
• direct another authority to carry out its functions to the extent specified.

Section 8 to Appeal and revision. An appeal against a decision of an authority lies before the appropriate appellate authority prescribed for the purpose. The State Government or an authorised authority may at any time call for and examine the records of any order passed or proceeding taken under the Act, with the safeguard that no order may be modified, amended or reversed unless notice has been served on the interested parties and they have been given an opportunity to be heard.

Is the Communitisation Act being reviewed?

Yes. The Government of Nagaland has run a formal review of the Act. A Panel for Review of the Communitisation of Public Institutions and Services Act, 2002 was constituted under the convenorship of former Chief Secretary Banuo Z. Jamir, IAS (Retd.).

At the panel meeting held at the DC Conference Hall, Kohima on 27 November 2020, the convenor set out the terms of reference: to study the strengths and weaknesses of the Act across all the public services it covers, to make recommendations for improvement and reform in the delivery of public services, to identify areas of concern and suggest remedial measures for implementation of the Act or omission of services and activities from its purview, and to study existing lacunae in the functioning of stakeholder departments.

District-level consultative meetings followed across the state. At the Kohima meeting on 17 September 2021, held at the DPDB conference hall, the panel met officers from the District Administration, School Education, Health & Family Welfare, the Chief Medical Officer, PHED, Social Welfare, Rural Development and Power departments, and circulated a questionnaire for field offices to return online by 15 October 2021. Similar consultations were held at Wokha, Peren, Mon and elsewhere. Departments have also compiled consolidated lists of performing and non-performing villages by sector.

Anyone relying on communitisation arrangements for a school should therefore check current departmental notifications, because the framework is under active review rather than settled.

Where do I find the Act and the notifications?

• Full text of the Act: the Government of Nagaland publishes The Nagaland Communitisation of Public Institutions and Services Act, 2002 and the Amendment Act No. 5 of 2004 on the Act & Rules page of nagaland.gov.in. The 2004 amendment received the Governor's assent on 29 June 2004 and was published in the Nagaland Gazette Extraordinary dated 28 September 2004.
• School Education Department: education.nagaland.gov.in, with district-level contact through the DEO and block-level through the SDEO.
• State notifications and gazette: the Nagaland e-Gazette at govtpress.nagaland.gov.in, and DIPR at ipr.nagaland.gov.in, phone 0370-2271492.

The Act helps the State Government to make rules under Section 11, and those rules, not the bare Act, govern the detailed composition and powers of a Village Education Committee in any given sector and area. Always read the notification applicable to your village alongside the Act itself.

How to check the status of communitisation for your village

Because communitisation is not an individual application, there is no application-tracking portal, reference number, or SMS update to check. What a village, Village Education Committee (VEC), or an individual teacher or parent can actually verify is whether the underlying legal steps for their school have been completed, and each of those has its own record to check.

1. Confirm the Section 3 notification exists. Ask the District Education Officer (DEO) or Sub-Divisional Education Officer (SDEO) whether the State Government has issued a notification constituting or declaring an authority for your village or area. Without this notification on file, nothing else in the process can have happened, regardless of what has been discussed informally.
2. Confirm the Section 4 delegation notification. A separate notification specifies which powers over the school (staffing, assets, funds) have actually been delegated to the VEC. The DEO's office holds copies of notifications applicable to schools in its district, and can confirm whether your school's delegation covers the powers your committee believes it holds.
3. Check the Nagaland e-Gazette. State notifications under the Act are published in the Nagaland Gazette Extraordinary. The e-Gazette at govtpress.nagaland.gov.in is the authoritative public record of whether and when a notification for your village or sector was issued.
4. Check the School Education Department site. education.nagaland.gov.in carries departmental circulars and updates relevant to communitised schools; it is the department's own channel, separate from the gazette.
5. Ask about your school's place in the performing/non-performing list. Departments compiled consolidated lists of performing and non-performing villages by sector during the Act's ongoing review. Asking the DEO where your school sits on that list is a practical way to gauge whether the committee's management is considered in good standing.
6. Call DIPR for notification queries that the district office cannot resolve. The Directorate of Information & Public Relations (0370-2271492) is the point of contact the state lists for notification and gazette queries when the district-level office cannot locate a record.

There is no fixed timeframe for any of these checks; because the whole framework depends on notifications issued village by village and sector by sector, the DEO or SDEO for your area is the fastest way to get a definitive answer rather than any online tracker.

Common reasons a village's communitisation does not move forward

Communitisation has no rejectable "application" in the usual sense, but villages, committees, and individual staff run into recurring reasons why the process stalls, why a committee's authority is contested, or why the State Government acts against an existing committee. Each has a specific fix.

• No Section 3 notification has actually been issued for the village. Because Section 1(3) lets the government notify different parts of the state and different sectors at different times, some villages simply have not been reached yet. The fix is to have the Village Council or Village Development Board formally raise the request with the DEO/SDEO rather than assume communitisation applies automatically statewide.
• A committee is treated as constituted, but no Section 4 delegation has followed. A village can have a recognised committee on paper while the specific powers over the school were never delegated by notification. The fix is to obtain and read the actual Section 4 notification; if none exists, the committee has no formal authority yet, however active it may be in practice.
• The committee's composition does not follow the prescribed process. Section 3 authorities are meant to be constituted or declared by the State Government through the Village Council and Village Development Board structure; an ad hoc group set up informally is not the same as a notified authority and will not be recognised for the purposes of Sections 4 to 7.
• Attempting to change a teacher's service conditions directly. Section 6(2) bars a committee from varying a regular officer's or teacher's conditions of service outside State Government rules. Disputes here are common; the fix is to route the matter through the appellate authority prescribed under Section 8, not through the committee acting unilaterally.
• Fund mismanagement or failure to operate within State Government directions. Because Section 7 funds are grant-based and subject to State Government direction, and Section 9 allows inspection at any time, a committee that cannot account for its fund or ignores an inspection is at direct risk of the supersession, dissolution, or reassignment of functions that Section 10 allows once the government forms an adverse opinion, stated in a reasoned order.
• No response to the review consultation process. Villages and departments that did not return the questionnaire circulated during district-level consultations, or that missed sector-wise reporting deadlines, risk being recorded as non-performing rather than performing, which affects how the ongoing review of the Act treats their arrangement going forward.

In every case above, the remedy is the same: obtain the actual notification or order in writing from the DEO, SDEO, or the State Government, rather than relying on informal village-level understanding of what has been delegated or decided.