The Hapless Teacher

It is commonplace for students to adversely critique their teachers despite having not the foggiest notion of the teacher’s constraints. And it is in high fashion for parents to lend support to this enterprise of their offspring and indeed, add a few pointers of their own. I think it is high time someone spoke up in defence of this maligned class. No individual who has undergone, say abdominal surgery, considers himself an expert surgeon. The surgeon has a skill and a training that society acknowledges. But every person who has journeyed through the portals of an educational institution, deems himself a total expert on the process of educating. Society considers it unthinkable that teaching should require any specific skills or character traits, not available to all and sundry. The common belief is that if one is not good enough for any other profession, one can always end up teaching! So what if the remuneration is poor, and there is scant respect for the profession, the working day is short and vacations are long, so it must be an easy life! Well, here are some insights into the easy life of the hapless teacher. . 

Firstly, the syllabus is often designed without the timeframe kept in mind. Perhaps the parties who design the syllabus are not aware that a two year span on the calendar, is actually a year and a half of available teaching time, keeping in mind the vacations andstudy leave before the board examinations. Making inroads into this time, are wave upon wave of school examinations, co-curricular activities and a spate of inter-school fests, at each of which the teacher has additional duties thrust upon him. The teacher is not therefore, a beneficiary of this system. He is merely a fellow sufferer. Secondly, the institution expects the teacher to do justice to the syllabus set by the board of examinations. The parent expects the fringe benefit of teaching towards the competitive admission tests, to be taken after the board examinations. School authorities rarely explain to parents that these two tasks are mutually exclusive, given the temporal constraints. If such a service is deemed necessary, should it not be the duty of the institution to provide the teacher time to render it? The teacher’s hours of public speaking far outstrip those of the preacher or the politician. Since working hours are earmarked for teaching, correcting scripts, setting question papers, and other jobs required by the institution, the preparation time towards teaching, is actually a part of the leisure component in the enviable ‘short’ working day of the teacher. 

 Let us understand clearly that it is no longer the teacher’s business to teach the core concepts of the subject at all. If he teaches at the senior levels, then his is the job of ensuring that students procure the maximum marks in board examinations. In case he teaches classes not appearing for the board examinations, his is the job of making sure that the stipulated number of tests are set and corrected. It is not for him to ponder whether or not anybody benefits from the system. And it is unthinkable that it should be any part of the teacher’s business to decide what skills and attitudes to foster or what values to hold dear. 

Effective teaching requires excellent communication skills as well as clear concepts from grassroot level. Both these pre-requisites of teaching, bear doubtful correlation with the number of degrees one has acquired. As in any other species of mortals, such skills and concepts are certainly less common on the ground than are degrees. But unlike other professionals, the teacher is not in a position to hide any conceptual or linguistic lapse from public viewing, as his profession does not grant him any reaction time. Any human error of omission or commission is witnessed by the entire audience, and becomes the main topic of entertaining conversation for years to come. Needless to state, every repeat adds its own embellishment to the original tale.

 Freedom to choose, is the commonest demand of modern society. But it is only by parental and societal compulsion, and not by personal choice, that students subject themselves to education. Contrary to popular belief, this ardent dislike of the process of education, is not necessarily a reflection on the ability of the modern day teacher. It is society at large that has undergone changes. It would be nothing short of a miracle, if chalk-and-talk was to hold its own against the means of entertainment available today. Outstanding linguistic and dramatic skills are therefore necessary to ensnare the attention of an entire class. This is what makes an hour of teaching far from equal to an hour of work at an office. Every student should be allowed to choose the subjects he would like to study and the levels of difficulty for which he would like to strive. Unfortunately such choices are not offered in our system of education. Thus a common minimum acceptable standard exists, regardless of ability, exposure, or individual strengths and failings. This standard is presumably set with the average student in mind. It should be self evident, even to the mathematically challenged, that such a standard is automatically out of reach for a substantial fraction of the class. The ensuing levels of anxiety are further compounded by parental pressure in ill-considered choice of streams to study. But worse is still to come. The offspring’s rank at the top of the class is all-important to every parent, not only as insurance against the future, but as concrete proof of successful parenting. Since each set of parents is out to move heaven and earth in order to achieve this unlikely goal, an undignified scramble is unleashed, aiming for marks at any cost. The vicious cycle of private tuitions is merely a fallout of this societal attitude, for which, guess who gets blamed? 

 How much does this straightjacketed role of today’s teacher have in common with the role of his counterpart of the yesteryears? Where is the scope of encouraging independent thinking, or of moulding young minds? In this socially convenient role of propagandist and stooge, is the teacher recognizable as a member of a noble profession? Who then is today’s custodian of civilization?