Kohima, Sep 5 (PTI) Nagaland Chief Minister on Monday said teachers have an extremely important role in making their students responsible and contributing citizens of the society.Attending the state-level teachers day celebration here, Rio handed over cash reward and citation to 20 teachers belonging to both government and private schools for their extraordinary dedication in moulding students.Addressing the gathering, Rio said a teacher’s role is not limited to providing only academic knowledge to students, but in addition to academics, the students also look up to their teachers to find their ethical and moral compass, and learn the values that would guide them throughout their lifetime."Teachers have an extremely important role in making their students as responsible and contributing citizens of the society," he said.The CM said the Education Department will be launching a Teachers Attendance Monitoring System as part of the World Bank programme very soon and hoped that this measure would address the bad practice of proxy teachers and improve the attendance of teachers in their respective places of posting.Rio along with Advisor for School Education and State Council for Educational Research and Training, K T Sukhalu launched the Digital Teachers" Diary to enable government teachers to record their progress in classroom teaching learning transactions.The CM also launched "A Question A Day (AQAD)", an initiative of the School Education Department’s initiative in collaboration with Education Initiatives. The government also felicitated 50 each indigenous ST student toppers of the High School Leaving Certificate and Higher Secondary School Leaving Certificate examinations for the year 2021 and 2022 under the Chief Minister Meritorious Fellowship Scholarship (CMMFS) instituted in 2019 carrying Rs 50,000 cash reward and citation each.Rio lamented that the performance of the government schools in the state have not come up to the expectations of the state government.He asked the School Education department to introspect and see how government teachers can match or better the performance of private schools.With the state government working towards strengthening the teacher recruitment process and also to address other genuine issues, Rio hoped that the teachers would be more motivated and would leave no stone unturned in fully discharging their responsibilities. "Let us all – government, community and teachers – work collectively to ensure a more educated, a more skilled, a more productive, a more disciplined, a more ethical and empathetic future citizen," Rio said.Sukhalu informed that under various initiatives of the state government, Samagra Shiksha, Centre and World Bank funded projects, efforts are being made to reform the education sector in Nagaland.New areas will be explored to build complementary skills for personal and professional growth of the government teachers which is critical for their development and emotional wellbeing, he said. PTI NBS RG