Education is about learning; and educational transaction is about learning from each other. In formal and structured educational settings, interaction with the teachers is a major source of learning.
Teachers are the mainstay of any educational enterprise; this is true for all levels–primary, secondary and post-secondary. We all can remember some of our teachers, specially those who taught us well, and made an impression on us as kids, adolescents and young adults.
Today, educational enterprise in our country is facing an enormous shortage of capable and motivated teachers. At the primary level, teachers in public school system get recruited after paying a bribe of several thousand rupees; they end up treating their jobs as income-generating programmes.
Teachers in private schools are largely women, for whom the career is made out to be secondary to their job as housewives. Those teachers at post-secondary level who are employed in government colleges and universities, tend to intellectually ‘retire’ within a few years of joining their careers—they neither read anything new, nor write anything afresh.Combine this trend with active unionisation, professional politics, and other business interests (like coaching centres), and we have a scenario where teachers do everything else except teaching in the classrooms. Their contribution, therefore, as role models and ethical beacons is extremely doubtful.
Now, we have shortage of ‘qualified’ teachers as private colleges and universities have been mushrooming. A visit to greater Noida region on the outskirts of Delhi is enough to indicate that nearly 50 engineering colleges and management institutes are running there; most do not have faculty needed to provide professional education, even when the fees paid by students is beginning to compare with North American institutions. The same is true around the country in other disciplines and professions as well. It is not surprising to come across examples where such institutes end up hiring their own very mediocre graduates as teachers, thereby showing high placements and getting local faculty too.
That this problem is festering for decades can be gauged by the assessment of education last made in mid 1980s during the time of then Congress government at the centre. That we have done very little to address it systemically, is visible sharply today.
So, where are the Teachers? And what needs to happen to bring teachers back into the centre of educational reforms?
Rajesh Tandon
A survey by the Pay Review Committee (PRC) of the University Grants Commission (UGC) in 2008 had revealed that more than 51 per cent of teaching posts were lying vacant at the university level. Young and talented individuals are not opting for teaching. The PRC itself had suggested “attractive pay packages and better serving conditions” as a first step to fill vacant posts! The lack of good pay package is only one of the many reasons for the shortage of teachers. There is also the limited number of quality teachers available for recruitment. The problem of the non-availability of good and qualified teachers has aggravated with the UGC guidelines for more intake of students.
Most of the teachers who join the profession these days are intellectually and pedagogically challenged. Their learning ends after joining the profession. There are many reasons. The entirely ‘utilitarian’ position generally taken has affected the learning habits of the teachers. The academic aptitude of students too has undergone a dramatic change over the years. Most of them are interested in ‘value-based’ learning rather than going into the specificities of the subject they study. The pressures of a competitive environment (market -driven) and the absence of a learner-supportive family atmosphere need to be blamed for the decline. All these have resulted in chalta hei and jugad attitudes. The ethicality involved in a teaching position needs to be restored. There should be changes at individual and community levels. There are no shortcuts for more qualified teachers. We need to reform the way we look at learning and teaching processes. Media can play a major role in bringing changes in attitudes of the teachers and students.
Comment by Anil — November 18, 2009 @ 12:51 pm
Respected Rajeshbhai,
I don’t know why I am writing this to you.Perhaps your article ‘Where are the teachers’ has inspired me to write this comment.
Please excuse me for my limitation to express my feelings in English.I could still remember the days when i was listening to your lecture in a motel in Gopalpur,Orrissa (I could not remember the name of the motel right now), when you were explaining us the theory and concept of VMS. That was probably in late eighty’s and I was a Post Graduate student of Journalism then. The point you were trying to exphasize then was almost same as of this article written by you,- who will serve the society as model educator? It hauled me then and still hauls me, and now when I am running an Institution to promote the concept of Gandhian Education in society(Nai Talim), which was established my father for this vision in 1040, my bitter experience is also almost same as your. Why we could not make teachers from our own society, who can really teach our children and youths with utmost devotion, dedication,sincerety and commiment.Think about the Education Reconstrution concept given by Gandhiji, which he had given much before of our independence i.e.in 1937 at Wardha conference, where his proposal of Nai Talim was accepted by all eminent educationists and Congress leaders of the country. Though it was accepted but when we got the independence, our so called national policy makers didn’t show any interest to take it as a national policy, excepting few province to run it for a few years as a mark to show respect to ‘Bapu’. It was not possible them also because they themselves were the product of the Macualay system,which Gandhiji had clearly directed to discard from our country. Gandhiji had always debated with all eminent educationists regarding the curriculam and role of the teachers in our schools.He clearly expressed his view that if the teachers will become professional and forget their commitment about their own task,discard them and make new teachers.He even told that ‘I have no hesitation in making an affirmative answer to close down the existing primary and secondary schools if the present teachers do not accept the concept of Basic Education(Nai Talim).’ The concept of Basic Education is perhaps well known to you, where the role of teacher is of primary importance. The success of the new theory of education, which was given by Gandhiji in 1937 was exclusively depending on the role of the teacher. And it really could not happen,ultimately keepin the Nai Talim concept fully sidelined, and allowing the said macaulay system doing its Raj as ever. Had we been able to follow the Gandhian concept of making teachers in its right shape and form, perhaps your deep concern about the scarcity of actual teachers in our country, would not have appeared in your blog.
But let us not lament on the non-availability of such teachers,- we would rather request you to come down to our Ashram at Majhihira(Puruli-W.B.) for a first hand experience of our challenging endeavour to bring up such new generation of teachers by our institute headed by my father,who at the age of 95 is still active and ageile.
The above narrative, as it remains,is the outcome of the training held almost 25 years back at Gopalpur,Orrissa, which not only imbibed the idea for being and making social educator but also strengthen me for the last quarter of a century in such a radicalisation of teaching and ultimately the process of Nai Talim.
May I be excused for such a hurried placement which is ofcourse an outcome of spontaneity and the relation between us, which I believe, still exist even after 25 years.
Yours sincerely,
Prasad Dasgupta
Executive Secretary
Majhihira N.B.E.Institution
Comment by Prasad Dasgupta (Manik) — November 23, 2009 @ 4:26 pm
Teachers on Proxy and one PhD degree to multiple institutions is the trend now.——— In one private engg college of Jaipur, I came to know one PhD , my known , displayed on college website to be their head of deptt. but practically nobody even knows his whereabout. Secondly,final year students/fresh graduates of same dummy institutes who have appeared in final year exams (with result pending) have been commonly teaching.
So privatisation of engg education is basically cheating with career of future students (who will have been having degree but not worth more than a piece of paper) whereas owners will benifit.
So Rajeshji,if you are really serious , then please prepare database of technical faculty WHICH WILL GIVE SURPRISING FIGURES OF ONE PERSON (employed in so many places but actually freshers teaching there).You can start by getting examined AICTE mandatory disclosures of the institutes.
Comment by Manoj Kamra — January 11, 2010 @ 4:55 pm
Study in Canada…
Nice blog on Where are the Teachers? It is very informative but I don’t fully agree with it as I have read other online views on the same. It was good to spend evening going through internet on Sunday . I’ll visit again to read more on this website….
Trackback by Study in Canada — July 11, 2010 @ 12:23 pm