Essay on Glory of Teaching

 

During my interaction with over a dozen teachers from primary schools of remote villages in Banda district, Uttar Pradesh, I was curious to know their understanding on the Right to Education Act, 2009.

I was not surprised to know that they severely lack understanding on “Right” to education, which is primarily meant for children between the age group of 6-14 years and applicable from 1st April, 2010 onwards. It only confirmed my worst fears. Similar feedback is coming from across the country about lack of enthusiasm among teachers about this important act, which is going to directly affect teacher’s work on the day to day basis.

Elementary education for children is possible without a number of incentive schemes, or even possible without a building or a book, but not without a teacher. The importance of teacher in educational process can not be overemphasised.

India is the land of Budha, who is one of the earliest known original teachers. Apart from mythological teachers (Yagywalkya, Gargi, Agastya) we have Chanakya, Vivekanand, Rabindranath Tagore, J Krishnamurti. We celebrate ‘Teachers Day’ (5th September) in the memory of Shri S Radhakrishnan and National Education Day (11th November) in memory of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, first Union Minister of Education. They are known for their dedication, genuine and innovative approaches. Whether modern day teachers are like them or not, may be contested. But the fact remains that modern day teachers are not treated like earlier teachers. Glory of teaching is lost.

The teachers have been reduced to administrators. Just another employee of the state, who is paid a monthly salary in lieu of their service in an office called ‘school’.  They will be ‘late’ if not reporting in the attendance register on a particular time. They are ‘given’ a task (syllabus) to complete in a time frame. Non-teaching activities become equally important- involvement in census, election, survey, cooking mid-day meal, building repair and maintenance, scholarship, text book and uniform distribution, MIS reporting to state authorities and so on. Teacher dignity can easily be compromised by any inspecting authority from block or district office. Media reports have not helped cause of teachers any better. Media reports galore with students beaten up, expelled from class rooms or even sexual abuse by teachers. Teachers’ popular image among non-teaching community includes a shabbily dressed, poor looking, lazy, stick wielding man and sweater knitting, sun-bathing fat lady. Jobless but aspiring women last hope hinges on teaching job. Reasons- household and child rearing duties can be managed easily along with the school duties.

I tried in vain to calculate the number of teachers in India. It is highly difficult to arrive at a number, simply because no one knows the number of schools in India. The central and state governments have, at best, records for the teachers on their pay roll and government aided schools. There are 26.62 lakh teachers engaged into government run primary schools in year 2009. However, for currently estimated 20 crore children in the school going age, we would need nearly 65 lakh teachers.

The teachers engaged into primary schools run by private agencies are not accounted for. Besides, there are dozens of categories- such as madarsas, music, sports, physical education, residential special category schools (run particularly for children with disability, caste groups, girls), vocational trainers, art & craft teachers, nursery and pre-primary teachers, language teachers (Urdu, Sanskrit, Sindhi, etc.). Perhaps a highly qualified researcher is required to probe exactly how many teachers we have at present in India engaged with children (up to 18 years of age).

It requires even a deeper probe why teachers are not enthusiastic about the right to education. While teacher community was more or less ignored during the drafting of the Act by the policy makers and educational administrators, they are further sidelined during its implementation. Rather than a major stakeholder in the process, they are just given certain provisions to enact, without a comprehensive understanding of the “right” of children to free and compulsory education at primary levels.

It was obvious that teachers are sceptical regarding the right to education. Provisions regarding banning corporal punishment in schools, no authority to fail or stop children at any grade, no screening for admission, growing influence of other stakeholders in management of schools have pre-occupied the discussions and concerns of the teachers. It is no wonder Model Rules released by the central government, “Part-IV responsibilities of school and teachers” has not even a single word about teachers. Non teaching role of teachers for conducting census, election continues (section 27), MDMS, scholarships, uniforms, developing and maintaining school infrastructure and building takes so much of teachers time on daily basis, though not having specific mention in the Act.

Section 23 gives Academic Authority a power to relax norms for minimum qualification to recruit teachers, up to five years. Assuming that RTE would enable all eligible children going to school in coming years followed by massive recruitment of teachers, we will have persons as teachers who do not possess even the minimum qualification for teaching.  Section 24 (1) clauses (c) and (d) are actually contradictory. While clause (d) talks about teacher’s discretion to assess learning ability and pace of individual child, clause (c) directs teachers to complete curriculum within a specified time.

Another interesting thing about this Act is that no one bothered to define teacher. In the Act, there are various terms used for teachers- regular teacher, para teacher, professional and permanent teacher, special teachers, head teacher, subject teacher. Reading of the Act and Rules indicates, ‘policy makers’ were least concerned with the teachers specialising in music, art, sports, physical education, therapy or experts in dealing with children with learning or other disability. Language teachers like Sanskrit, Sindhi or Urdu are quite a threatened lot. Para 4 of the Schedule stipulates minimum number of 45 working hours per week for the teachers.  Obviously they are not referring to teachers other than generalists.

Restoring the highest tradition of teaching in India and redeeming lost glory of teachers would be an urgent priority, if we are serious to make more than 20 crore children in India educated.

By

Shashi Prakash Sanjay

Email: shashi.pra-at-gmail.com