Fallen angels

Ardhendu Chatterjee

 (The writer is assistant professor of English, Durgapur Institute of Advanced Technology & Management, Rajbandh)

At times, teachers are more sinned against than sinning. While they definitely have a role in the general decadence of education, they cannot be made to account for all that’s wrong with the system. Why single them out, asks 

 

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. 
~ William Arthur Ward    

·         AS a member of the teaching fraternity, I feel extremely hurt to see that Teachers’ Day has, over the years, become a lackluster and low-key event with little or no media attention at all. Of course, students do still celebrate the day, organize functions, buy gifts for their “favorite” teachers and wish them a happy teachers’ day. But all this seems to be mere lip-service —superficial, perfunctory and devoid of the spirit of the quintessentially Indian teacher-student bond. Behind the façade of ceremonial respect to former President Dr S Radhakrishnan, one of the finest teachers, scholars and outstanding statesmen that the country has ever produced, students, guardians and the general public betray a cynical view of teachers. Little did the philosopher-statesman foresee that the teaching profession would fall into such disrepute with teachers losing their respectability, if not their relevance. 
Many people still believe that teachers, like leaders, are born, not made — a class apart. In their perception, teaching is a man-making mission and not a profession — an ideal that teachers growing up amidst rampant consumerism consider anachronistic and antediluvian. So there is increasing disillusionment with them. One hears a litany of complaints almost everyday about their lack of commitment, accountability, sincerity and integrity, misbehavior with students and parents, their desire to earn more and more by giving tuitions. All this has become good fodder for the media, too. 
Teachers have become soft targets of public criticism for their failure to live up to the traditional image of saintliness and sacrifice. Many people even envy their decent pay packets. They consider teachers fallen angels — followers of Satan rather than God. Their vices are many, virtues few!
Let’s take a look at a few of their failings. Absenteeism is one of the main planks of sweeping public wrath against teachers. On 8 September, the National Advisory Council chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi voiced her concern over absenteeism — about one-fourth of the teachers — in plus two government schools in rural areas. She exhorted the absconding teachers to emulate their colleagues in the state-run Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas and raise their schools to the same level. It’s another matter that she kept mum about absconding parliamentarians!
A recent Unesco’s International Institute of Educational Planning study on corruption in education has found that 25 per cent teacher absenteeism in India against the global average of about 20 per cent is “among the highest in the world, second only after Uganda that has a higher rate.” Two out of every five teachers and nearly one-third of the total number of teachers remain absent in Bihar and UP respectively. But absenteeism is lower than 15 per cent in Gujarat and Kerala going by multiple small case studies. Instances of teachers not teaching even though they report for duty are not also rare. Back in 2006, a national survey found that “only 45 per cent were actually teaching” during surprise or unscheduled visits.
The Unesco study further says that quality of education is the major casualty of absenteeism, tantamount to a colossal wastage of 22.5 per cent of funds in India. Politics in appointment and transfer of teachers appears to be a conundrum. It aids and abets the system. Absenteeism due to engagement in private tuitions is, according to Unesco, highly “unethical” for it opens the floodgates of corruption without complementing what is taught at school. 
Right to politics, direct or indirect, is the bane of the Indian education system. Almost the entire teaching community right from the primary to the university level is politically polarised. The practice lends credence to what Thomas Mann had said long back, “In our time the destiny of man presents its meaning in political terms.” Emboldened by their direct access to the corridors of power, many teachers dabble in politics and gradually turn into an axis of power, dictating terms. People with no political inclination (a rare species indeed) condemn such “delinquent” (although “democratic” to many) teacher- behavior.
Higher education, too, is in a shambles. There were 400 universities in 2007-2008 in the country and over 20,000 colleges with student enrollment exceeding 12 million. It showed an annual growth rate of 6.2 per cent since 1985-86. While India is now poised to become a knowledge superpower, its growth is often inhibited by deep-rooted maladies. Of these, maintaining and monitoring quality in institutions of higher learning — a stupendous task — deserves special mention.
   A report released at the Ficci Higher Education Summit 2009 observed that structural shortcomings seriously handicap the higher education system and that too at a time when 63 per cent of the country’s educational institutions are in the private sector. Unaided private universities and deemed-to-be universities often flout the specifications prescribed by the UGC and other regulatory bodies with impunity, which affects the quality of teaching. 
   Other problems that plague higher education are similar to those that have eaten into the vitality of school education. The same lack of transparency in the appointment of teachers, lack of quality faculty, reluctance to undertake high-quality research, rampart cheating during exams with the tacit connivance of teacher-invigilators, carelessness in script checking, indiscriminate award of PhDs, favoritism and nepotism in the selection of research scholars, inordinate delay in the publication of university results are all too apparent. It is also alleged that college and university teachers busy themselves attending seminars, conferences and conventions at home and abroad neglecting their basic duty. Teachers are also blamed for students bunking classes; what they teach, so goes argument, is “interesting”. What a sweeping judgment! 
   All this is a symptom of a deeper and more general malaise in society. Definitely, teachers have a role in this decadence, but they are not the only agents of the palpable destruction of the art of teaching. Why single them out? At times, they are more sinned against than sinning.
   Contrary to popular misgivings, good teachers are a dwindling but not an extinct species. Not all those engaged in teaching have embraced it from their heart. Qualified though they are, they lack the zeal to teach, the human touch to inspire young souls, and the fire to ignite their minds. Having said this, we must also appreciate and honour those to whom teaching is both a passion and obsession. A microscopic minority though they are, they are a beacon of hope for the profession. It is they who have till now prevented teaching from becoming a “lost art”.