Musings on a teachers’ day

Bill Gates in a series of cyber talks (www.ted.com/talks) recently commented on education and the importance of teachers. Among other things he opined that paucity of good teachers is very much an Indian problem too. We always want someone of importance to comment or the arrival of a special day to make us think of pertinent issues like education, health, love and the like. Without Gates’ cautioning we are well aware of the rickety state of our education system. This traverses from the primary to the professional levels eroding the very values purported by the constitution.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recalled some of his teaching days during the eve of Teachers’ Day while conferring awards to the National Teacher awardees. He counted his days as a teacher as ‘the most satisfying and fulfilling in his life’. He also noted that the teachers needed to accept change in keeping with the times, maintaining a fine balance between traditions and innovation.

But it’s a sad truth that beyond these words, projected to the teaching community during ‘special times’, nothing promising is happening. Professional teaching suffers the most due to the lack of committed and sincere teachers and the price is paid by the community. The non-commitment and callousness of today’s professionals can be attributed to the teachers who failed to instil any values or morals in their wards. When the teacher him/herself promote wealth oriented and job oriented education what more can we expect from the students?

Teaching whenever becomes a supplementary job is detrimental. To make ends meet today’s professional take up teaching along with practice. They merely end-up as ‘arm chair teachers’ who never budge from their place to make an effort to teach or demonstrate. Many of them are interested in the promotions and the positions tied to these posts and will attain it with no sweat.

Academic exercises like research, paper presentations/publications and the like should be made mandatory in promoting and designating a teacher. Student evaluation of teachers is another effective tool to rate the best from the worst. This Sep’ 5th let’s pay homage to all those conscientious teachers who made teaching a sublime experience. Jai ho!