गुरुर्ब्रह्मा ग्रुरुर्विष्णुः गुरुर्देवो महेश्वरः । गुरुः साक्षात् परं ब्रह्म तस्मै श्री गुरवे नमः ॥
Needless to say that everyone is well aware of this hymn, isn’t it? But is that really enough? Is life in India all hunky-dory just like the hymns that we recite?
Let us all, for the next couple of minutes, peep into the Life of a Teacher, the cornerstone of our Idealistic Education System.
Teaching has been a noble profession for time immemorial. To enlighten one’s path is a deed that is righteous in itself. Then why do the doers still suffer? Are they not worthy of the rewards? Where is the fault then?
To blame the system completely would be hypocritical and inappropriate because at times we find the system red-handed and at others, the teachers.
Faults of the System
• Teachers at private institutes, more often, are not blessed with the rewards that they deserve, even after hours of dedicated lectures and satisfied students. I sense exploitation, don’t you?
• They do not have the security of their jobs as such. Any moment or any day can turn out to be their Judgement day leaving them helpless without any job/source of income.
• False advertisement by private institutes, to draw the attraction of students like moths to a flame, is not unheard of.
• People, with no experience of teaching and no degrees to honk about, are given prestigious posts in place of the geniuses with numerous accolades and degrees to their names. Government has a stricter screening process now. The ones with the degrees are chosen.. but what about their teaching methodology? How long before that is considered as the main criteria for selection?
• Teacher-student ratio is the worst and no improvement is seen even when unemployment glares into your eyes and laughs shamelessly at your blunders. Reason? Low education budget.. and where does all the hard-earned money of the citizens go?🤔
• Teachers should be respected by their students and colleagues alike and not shown their aukaat by the head of the institutes just because they are responsible for their bread.
• Teachers, I believe, should be made responsible for the work that they do best i.e. to teach. Instead, they (Govt. teachers) are bestowed with other administrative stuff like census, mid-day meal reports, election duties and what not. Jiska kaam ussi ko saaje, duja kare toh.… bas bas bahut tezz ho rahe ho!
Like I said, the system is not the only target to throw your allegations and accusations at. Teachers, too, are responsible.
• Teachers, in order to taste the success with minimum efforts, falsely sparkle their achievements, half of which is not true.
• More often than not, the methodology followed by them is not interesting and students tend to skip and hate the subject. It mostly includes exam oriented stuff and rarely conceptual.
• Government teachers, owing to the regular payments shoved down their pockets, don’t really give a damn about the syllabus. Aur rahi baat unki training ki… woh toh gayi tel lene. But the cherry of the cake is that despite the decent income, many prefer to also engage in private coaching classes for that extra feather on their hats. Consequences – Bacche jo unke coaching attend nahin karte, unhe marks nahin milta hai.
• Teachers ( in general) are not updated on various topics. Hence the trend of old school examiners scares the hell out of students because they are often adamant to adapt to the ever-changing answers. Hence the advice – Bacchon agar old examiner ho toh aise jawab dena. Like seriously?
Having said the cons, it would be incomplete and insincere to not mention the contributions of teachers who have given their blood and sweat just to lighten the darkness, likes of whom are, Dr. RadhaKrishnan, Sri Swami Vivekananda, Savitribai Phule, Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and many many many more.
• They were, are and will continue to be the only hope in the darkest alleys of people’s minds that have the slightest inclination for knowledge.
• Many of them help students study for free. They even bear the finances of their children to give proper education to the homeless, books and other stationery like Anand Sir(Super 30) and Padmashree Rao (tea seller)
• Not only do they teach, they even inspire us to learn more, making our hunger for knowledge insatiable, such is their enigma!
The teachers and the system are to be blamed for degrading the education of students belonging to a country known for producing some of the brightest minds of the century. The consequence? It reverberates and affects not only the students but also the living of teachers. There are many Govt. and Private teachers, who yet deserve their recognition for the work they do. And yet so many who simply occupy the post undeservingly. And about the students? Well, that core debate remains for another day. For now, let’s ponder over this.
Courtesy : Sristi Mohapatra @Unconventional fleetings of the mind