Our Teacher and Their Teaching

                                                                   *Saumitra Mohan

            Of the many sectors critical to a country’s expedited development, education is definitely the most important one. And it is with this in view that all the countries treat it with the utmost care and importance. Perhaps that’s why, the benefits of education has spread far and wide all across the world. The countries which realized it earlier and invested wisely in their human resources stole a march over their counterparts in other parts of the world who woke up late to appreciate the value of education.

            The Constitution of India, realising the import, very specifically mentions the need for universalizing education among the Indian citizens. Article 45, as part of the Directive Principles of State Policy, says, “The State shall endeavour to provide early childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of six years”. All the education policies framed by the Government of India since independence have rightly been emphasizing the improvement of infrastructural and pedagogical tools over the years.

            However, there still appears a lot amiss when we see the net output of our education system. And of all the things, it is the teachers and teaching which remain the weakest link in the whole scheme of things. While a teacher is supposed to be most important factor, s/he appears completely out of place when it comes to imparting education. Be it his own motivation to teach, his qualifications, his teaching felicities, his training credentials, his involvement in the school administration or his proactive role in building the holistic character of our future citizens, the teacher remains on the margins.

            A teacher is said to be very high in social hierarchy in USA; only a teacher is allowed to sit down in French courts; teachers could be arrested only after the Govt permission in Japan; a teacher is equivalent to a Minister in status in South Korea; a primary teacher gets the highest salary in USA and many European countries. However, the popular image of an average Govt teacher is not very uplifting in our country. S/he is perceived as an unconcerned, unaccountable, unconscientized money-driven person who is involved with anything and everything but education.

            Hence, if we really wish to improve our education system, we need to pay the requisite attention to all aspects surrounding our teachers. And, the beginning has to be made with the recruitment of teachers, something which is afflicted by needless sleaze, politics and politicking. The teacher recruitment in our country is often so politicised that the same hardly leaves any scope for enlistment of capable and competent teachers who really love to spend time and energy with our tiny tots.

            Ergo, the first step has to be restructuring of our teacher recruitment system which is alleged to be marred by politics and venality. The same should be so designed as to attract the best talents to our schools. The basic qualifications should be duly customised to different segments of school education so as to attract the most well-trained and motivated teachers into our schools. The same should be coupled with a well-planned teacher’s training, something which is often informed by dilettantism.

            There still remain many schools with surplus or scarce teachers. The same need to be immediately revisited to rationalise the deployment of our teachers as far as possible and practicable. There are good number of schools with zero or negligible enrollment. The same should be either closed down or merged with neighbouring schools for optimum utilisation of available human resources. Teacher’s availability in every school should be ensured with a view to ensuring regular and structured instructions in our schools.

            Many empirical studies have pointed to various flaws in our teachers’ training module and delivery thereof. Most of these training sessions are alleged to be conducted with the least of professionalism. The training is not taken seriously either by the trainers or the trainees. The training is usually viewed as an opportunity for a ‘Get-Together’ at Govt expense with no follow up on the training inputs imparted.

            Because of fast changing times and emergent complications in educating impressionable minds, the teachers should be encouraged to keep pursuing and nurturing their knowledge for better appreciation of child psychology. Generally, it is seen that most of the teachers get so engrossed in the day to day mundane demands of life that they stop enriching themselves. That’s why, it is advisable that special incentives and encouragements be provided for motivating them to add more functional qualifications to their education. Hence, there is an urgent need to make the teachers’ training more structured, professional and pedagogically relevant. It is with this view that many state governments have been approaching this subject with a lot of gravitas.

            Even though there exist specific laws against our teachers indulging in private tuitions beyond the school hours, still a good number of our teachers continue to take private tuitions thereby compromising their commitment to classroom teaching. As long as such a practise is allowed to continue, it would be very difficult to improve the quality of instructions of our schools. That’s why, the relevant authorities associated with the management and administration of school education need to start enforcing relevant laws against private tuitions by full time teachers.

            Again, teachers’ participation in regular politics is something which needs to be discouraged and stopped immediately as the same conflicts with the imperatives and objectives of imparting better quality education to our children. It also conflicts with and compromises the commitment and motivation of our teachers towards their immediate tasks i.e. preparing our future citizens. The teacher should be allowed to participate in politics only after their resignation from his/her job in the concerned schools.

             Another obstacle to quality teaching relate to teachers’ preoccupations with various extra-school assignments. Most of the teachers are drafted for different purposes other than teaching which encroaches upon their time for attending to their various tasks in the school including teaching. This includes regular round-the-year engagement in extra-teaching duties like census, survey, elections and various development-related IEC activities which tear them away from their own pressing tasks of teaching. Teachers’ involvement with running Mid Day Meal (MDM) is also alleged to be a diversion to their teaching assignments. The relevant rules should be strictly enforced to discourage our teachers from indulging in private tuitions, something which detracts from the professional honesty to their tasks.

            Besides, it is advisable that teaching and school management should be segregated into two different cadres. Association and involvement with day-to-day management and administration of school also compromise a teacher’s commitment to his tasks. Often, the unwarranted conflicts with the politically-drafted Management Committees interfere with his teaching responsibilities. So, the entire affairs of school management and pedagogy ought to be duly separated without compromising the efficiency of each other.

            All said and done, the system of school inspection must be revitalized and strengthened. Regular and systematic school inspection of our schools, private and public, would guarantee uniformity in terms of instructional quality and basic childcare. The School Inspectorate System needs to be reinforced through more recruitment and provisioning of required logistic and regulatory support along with independence to do their work in keeping with the relevant policies and guidelines made in this regard.

            If we are really serious about our school education, we need to attend to all the above-mentioned issues emergently otherwise our schools can’t cope with the challenges of a bloating population. We shall never be able to reap the demographic dividends with half-baked education of our children who shall be the future citizens and leaders of India and a globalized world.