Friday, September 08, 2006
Late, as usual …
Well this post was supposed to go on Sept 5th … the teacher’s day… and I am late, as usual. I still remember my school days when we (students) used to take up roles of teachers that day and occupy princi’s office, teachers room,… take classes and throw a party to our teachers…
Teachers, at least when I was in school, had a different aura of themselves. Not all were good and thus respected too … but there was a difference… as time flew, the quality of the faculty at every level of education, especially towards higher classes, has been deteriorating... teachers have been complaining about the quality of students enrolling has been degrading … students claim that the teachers are not qualified / knowledgeable enough to take the class…
I think, it’s a cyclic issue and resulting in nothing but overall degradation – both in quality of student (and then resulting in citizens) and thus the society at large. If we look deeper in to the profiles of the teachers in schools today, we’ll find most of them are there not because they want to teach and share knowledge, but either to have income without too much of effort or they could find any other job … (I won’t say better!) …
I think there is extreme lack of incentive to teach – esp. in schools and colleges… as I have seen many of them taking tuitions and extra classes for many of their students after the school hours to get some extra cash … in fact a lot of them run a scheme where in they make mandatory to have extra classes / tuitions if the student wants to pass / get some extra marks … and in this competitive environment where in even 95% is less, students are left with no choice but to please their masters …
Also, a lot of them are really incapable of teaching… they are there because they couldn’t be anywhere… and the frustration is obvious … resulting in poor academic grooming of students … there was a time when teachers’ had all the answers… looks like the days are over now… another set of teachers are house wives … who want to kill their day time when their hubbies are out on roads … also to get some extra income. Well that’s not bad, but at least there should be intention of teaching …
Moving to the higher education level … the scene is more than pathetic … apart from IIT’s and few of the NITs (earlier RECs) there are hardly any college with a good strength of faculty … a lot of them are their own students who don’t get placed start their post graduation and then doctorate to become faculty … but if you see their up bringing in the education scenario – it’s again way behind … as these folks (most of them) … actually do a lot of copy paste stuff rather than the actual research … to be assessed by some faculties who came through the same route … understandably their knowledge would also be limited … and similar case is their in the management section … I am not aware of the other sect of the education umbrella and therefore I am not going to comment on them …
We have been hearing quite often that students are not respecting teachers … I say those who say this are wrong… absolutely wrong … actually they don’t deserve that respect in the first place… you don’t ask respect … you gain respected … students do respect if they respect students and their feelings and their goals of life … if they create a learning environment rather than imposing literature (education can never be imposed) … emphasize on thought process rather than book …
One of the key reasons that we have dearth of good teachers/ faculty is the remuneration thus generated is too feeble to clear up the living expenses … I think if teaching is seen as a profession with high quality and then high income – it’ll gain more attention. If we compare from the schools and univs across the ocean, the faculty out there gets much higher packages than that in India. Pay high for a quality (entry condition and penalties clauses will work wonders) – I am sure many will come forward …
Teachers, at least when I was in school, had a different aura of themselves. Not all were good and thus respected too … but there was a difference… as time flew, the quality of the faculty at every level of education, especially towards higher classes, has been deteriorating... teachers have been complaining about the quality of students enrolling has been degrading … students claim that the teachers are not qualified / knowledgeable enough to take the class…
I think, it’s a cyclic issue and resulting in nothing but overall degradation – both in quality of student (and then resulting in citizens) and thus the society at large. If we look deeper in to the profiles of the teachers in schools today, we’ll find most of them are there not because they want to teach and share knowledge, but either to have income without too much of effort or they could find any other job … (I won’t say better!) …
I think there is extreme lack of incentive to teach – esp. in schools and colleges… as I have seen many of them taking tuitions and extra classes for many of their students after the school hours to get some extra cash … in fact a lot of them run a scheme where in they make mandatory to have extra classes / tuitions if the student wants to pass / get some extra marks … and in this competitive environment where in even 95% is less, students are left with no choice but to please their masters …
Also, a lot of them are really incapable of teaching… they are there because they couldn’t be anywhere… and the frustration is obvious … resulting in poor academic grooming of students … there was a time when teachers’ had all the answers… looks like the days are over now… another set of teachers are house wives … who want to kill their day time when their hubbies are out on roads … also to get some extra income. Well that’s not bad, but at least there should be intention of teaching …
Moving to the higher education level … the scene is more than pathetic … apart from IIT’s and few of the NITs (earlier RECs) there are hardly any college with a good strength of faculty … a lot of them are their own students who don’t get placed start their post graduation and then doctorate to become faculty … but if you see their up bringing in the education scenario – it’s again way behind … as these folks (most of them) … actually do a lot of copy paste stuff rather than the actual research … to be assessed by some faculties who came through the same route … understandably their knowledge would also be limited … and similar case is their in the management section … I am not aware of the other sect of the education umbrella and therefore I am not going to comment on them …
We have been hearing quite often that students are not respecting teachers … I say those who say this are wrong… absolutely wrong … actually they don’t deserve that respect in the first place… you don’t ask respect … you gain respected … students do respect if they respect students and their feelings and their goals of life … if they create a learning environment rather than imposing literature (education can never be imposed) … emphasize on thought process rather than book …
One of the key reasons that we have dearth of good teachers/ faculty is the remuneration thus generated is too feeble to clear up the living expenses … I think if teaching is seen as a profession with high quality and then high income – it’ll gain more attention. If we compare from the schools and univs across the ocean, the faculty out there gets much higher packages than that in India. Pay high for a quality (entry condition and penalties clauses will work wonders) – I am sure many will come forward …
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Educational Sector is a classic example of 'Where not to Privatise?'.
The sector has seen further deterioration post privatization, though it wanst doing great under the govt as well. So many politicians have opened colleges to mint money - they are hardly concerned with the quality of education there.
And to think that at a time the best colleges were those run by politicians - like those which Lala Lajpat Rai had opened (where Bhagat Singh and others studied).
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The sector has seen further deterioration post privatization, though it wanst doing great under the govt as well. So many politicians have opened colleges to mint money - they are hardly concerned with the quality of education there.
And to think that at a time the best colleges were those run by politicians - like those which Lala Lajpat Rai had opened (where Bhagat Singh and others studied).
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